Wings of Fire: War of SandWing Succession
by Princess Goldenrod
Summary: The dragons are at war to decide the new SandWing Queen. Five dragons born on the same night who can return peace the land. Queen Scarlet leads an evil faction of SkyWings that will stop at nothing to destroy the dragonets of destiny, and rule over the entire continent of Pyrrhia. Clay, his friends, and a SkyWing defector will decide the fate of Pyrrhia.
1. Prologue: A Touch of Death

**Author's note:** So I just started reading Wings of Fire last week, and I'm already writing a fanfiction for it. I probably won't have very much to said in this first author's note, but just so people reading this know ahead of time, this fanfiction will have it's own separate plot from the actual series, and if there happens to be any similarities between any scenes in this fanfiction and the actual books, it was either intentional (such as a few moments in this chapter) or accidental, as I have only read the first book and part of the second book so far.

A major difference here will be how long Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, and Starflight have been imprisoned by Queen Scarlet. As of the time this prologue, they have been imprisoned for about four years now (ever since they were captured by Scarlet when they were three years old).

There are some things from the first book I chose not to change however, like Peril's firescales, Clay's fire resistance, etc. Except for other other thing, I think that's about all I've got to say right now.

I have three more chapters I might post throughout the day; I kinda got carried away with the writing and I wrote 2 1/2 chapters in the same day I started this. Heck just yesterday, mikey1393drago and I ended up writing a chapter together. (And he's not even read the books yet!)

Anyway, the only other thing I have to say is that this chapter, as will all upcoming ones, was proofread by mikey1393drago.

Edit: In case it wasn't clear before since I just received a message where somebody asked me about this. This story is non-canon. At the time that I started writing it, I was only just beginning to read _The Lost Heir_ , so this story is basically in an alternate reality from Tui's _Wings of Fire_ series.

* * *

 **Prologue:  
A Touch of Death**

Queen Scarlet rules the SkyWings with a figurative iron fist; no one dares question her word, for it _is_ the law of the SkyWing Kingdom. Any dragon that has dared to has never been seen again. Rumor has it that anyone who dares question her word, and therefore her _law_ , is left at the mercy of the champion of her arena, Peril, who was born with the deadly ability known as firescales. Anyone the fiery SkyWing touches dies, reduced to ash in an instant, even if only barely touched by Peril.

Some of their fellow SkyWings believe Peril is Queen Scarlet's secret weapon, while others say that is not the case, that Peril's only purpose is to ensure nobody ever escapes their imprisonment, that when a dragon begins winning too many battles in the arena, Queen Scarlet has them battle Peril, just to ensure they do not live to earn their freedom, by having her arena champion Peril execute them. That is happening today.

"Please! Have mercy!" the male dragon, only seven years of age, screams at his attacker. Her touch alone is like being scorched by lava; and that dragon, Horizon, is trapped in the sadistic Queen Scarlet's arena in a fight to the death against her. It has always been common knowledge that if anyone dares touch Peril, they have a death wish, for anyone she touches dies painfully, as if she is a walking inferno.

Everyone agrees that Peril's parents did not want her when she was born, that she supposedly killed her brother when they hatched, and so Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings took her in as her own. No-one has heard from Peril's mother since she tried to escape from the SkyWing Kingdom and Peril never knew her; it is believed Queen Scarlet and her best fighters killed Peril's mother and lied to Peril by telling her that her mother chose to abandon the kingdom. Nobody knows the truth for sure, but that has not stopped the SkyWings from speculating even if it has gotten some of them killed by Peril as per Queen Scarlet's orders.

Queen Scarlet is the only SkyWing in her kingdom who can provide Peril with everything a dragon with firescales needs to survive; every day, Peril must eat coals on a regular basis or her horrifying ability will be the death of her, burning her alive from the inside out. The coals Queen Scarlet provides Peril with are the only things that can stop it from happening.

"Get away!" Horizon screams. "Do not lay a talon on me! Please! I am begging you! Don't you dare touch me, you hellspawned creature!"

"I do not need to use my talons to watch your scales become ash," Peril mutters ominously. "All I need to do is wrap my arms and wings around you, as if I'm hugging you, and then I can watch your scales melt like ice does at the start of the warm season."

An uproar in the audience of SkyWings erupts suddenly. The gruesomeness and tone of their requests only intensifies with each dragon who yells down at Peril and Horizon in the arena.

"We want gore!"

"More blood! More guts!"

"Make him burn!"

"Rip off his wings!"

"Cut his throat!"

"Put him through Hell, Peril!"

"We want to see him burn!"

"Less talk! More murder! More gore!"

"Turn his body to ashes!"

"We want to see you cremate him alive!"

"Kill him! Make him suffer!"

"Death to the SandWing!"

"We want death!"

"Eat his liver for breakfast, Peril!"

Horizon's eyes become wide with terror.

"Are all you SkyWings insane?!" he screams at them.

"More gore! More death!" the SkyWings answer in unison.

"We want to see the SandWing burn!"

"Leave his charred corpse at Princess Blaze's door as her Hatching Day gift! It is next week when the three moons are full!"

"Rip off the bastard dragon's head and impale it on a stake!"

"Make him watch you eat him alive!"

"You're all sadists!" Horizon bellows. "I will not let all of you sadists find pleasure in my suffering! I'll end it on _my terms_!"

Knowing he would never be able to escape Queen Scarlet's arena by flight, Horizon knows that he only has one option to cease his suffering in this hell. He knows Queen Scarlet will not let him nor Peril leave her arena until one of them has stopped breathing, and no matter what happens, he knows it won't be him. How can he kill a dragon who kills anything she touches? He's heard plenty of talk about his fellow prisoners, when he's chained up beyond the arena on those pillars, that nobody has ever won against Peril in a battle; nobody has survived either. Peril is Queen Scarlet's arena champion; not only does nobody triumph over her in the arena, there is no chance of their bodies being carried out by Queen Scarlet's servants in one piece. Horizon is about to show the non-SkyWing audience why that is the case.

 _What is he doing?_ Peril wonders.

Nobody in the arena imagined Horizon would fly _towards_ Peril. He body slams into her and wraps his wings around Peril, holding so tightly that she cannot move as her firescales begin scorching through his body. His spine chilling screams of agony reach the ears of every dragon in the arena, be they a honored guest or worthless prisoner.

The SkyWings go into a frenzy; the sound of his screams is like music to their ears. Bearing witness to the SandWing's scales becoming ash, his face becoming an unrecognizable shape as he buries it into Peril's chest, is the most entertainment these SkyWings have had in the past few months of watching these death battles in Queen Scarlet's arena. Some of the SkyWings begin screaming so loudly that it makes their throats ache.

"BURN HIS ENTIRE BODY!"

"LEAVE NOTHING FOR THE BIRDS TO FEAST ON!"

Horizon endures Peril's firescales turning his face to ash for only another minute before he drops over dead. There is nothing left of his wings nor his face but the piles of ash lying at Peril's feet; Horizon barely looks like a dragon anymore. There is not a quiet SkyWing in the audience; nearly all of them want to fly down into the arena to congratulate Peril, but they know she'd probably turn their bodies to piles of ash too, so they resist the urge as much as they can.

Queen Scarlet scowls down at Horizon's corpse, which is still deteriorating even though Peril is no longer touching him. She is most definitely _not_ pleased with how the SandWing died.

"That was not thrilling at all," the queen complains to her daughter, Princess Tourmaline. "My fellow SkyWings did not wish to see Peril win another battle because her opponent kills himself before she can make him really suffer."

"They seem to have enjoyed it nonetheless, mother," Princess Tourmaline says. "I have not ever seen them behaving like this before."

"YES!"

"Death to the SandWing scum!"

"Now deliver his corpse to Princess Blaze, Queen Scarlet!"

Queen Scarlet flies up to the highest pillar in the arena, frightening off the announcer dragon, her own son no less, from his position.

"SILENCE!" Queen Scarlet roars. "Hold your tongues! Do you ignorant dragons not know a bad fight when you see one?! This was not thrilling in the least! That SandWing, Horizon, is a coward! He did not have the guts to face Peril to the bitter end, so he chose to kill himself! Princess Blaze will not miss such a coward; when she finds out, she'll probably thank me and Peril for getting that coward out of her life."

"MORE GORE!"

"Make Peril fight again!"

"We want more murder!"

"We want to watch another dragon wither away to ash!"

Queen Scarlet's eyes become wide with fury. Some of the audience swears they can see fire burning in her eyes. "SILENCE ALL OF YOU!" she roars. "WHERE IS YOUR SELF CONTROL? Do I need to come up there and slash half your SkyWing throats for you to understand? You do not cheer for Peril winning a battle after her opponent took the cowardly way out! Now hold your tongues, SkyWings, before I have Peril burn them away!"

The SkyWing audience immediately becomes quiet, but Queen Scarlet does not.

"PERIL!" Queen Scarlet bellows. "Teach those SkyWings a lesson!"

"FLY FOR YOUR LIVES!" a female SkyWing screams. "She's sending Peril after us!"

"Attack! Kill! Burn! Teach them a lesson they will not forget any time soon, my Champion!"

Peril roars like a dragon possessed and streaks across the arena to where the SkyWing audience is, flying in all directions in a panic to get away from the burning dragon.

She gets her talons on a male dragon not much older than herself. His shoulders begin to fall apart in her grasp, being nothing more than ash sliding between Peril's talons in mere seconds.

"So you are fine with a dragon taking his own life to get out of me making him suffer?"

"P-Please Peril…I meant no disrespect towards our Queen!"

"Queen Scarlet wishes me to teach you all a lesson…I will do just that."

The burning SkyWing puckers up her lips and, without any hesitation, plants them against the male SkyWing's lips with an unusual passion. Even though he tries to scream as his lips are rapidly reduced to ash, Peril continues passionately kisses him. She can taste the ash that was his muzzle as she grabs his face with her front talons, in a vain attempt to escape her hold. His screams of agony do nothing to discourage Peril from her act, which can be considered one of torture. Usually a dragon would dream about such a beautiful SkyWing kissing him, but Peril's kiss meant death. Even if she had only briefly kissed him, not for as prolonged of a time as she was, it would have been enough to burn away his entire muzzle almost immediately.

When Peril is finished with her act that is seen as borderline torture by her fellow dragons, nearly nothing of the SkyWing's head remains; his body falls over into the mound of ash that was his muzzle. The Skywing male's eyes are stuck in an expression of pain and terror. This may be Peril's first time kissing another male, knowing her kiss is a literal kiss of death, but she is pleased with herself, and she knows Queen Scarlet is too, for her unique way of executing a dragon. Peril smirks when she sees how impressed Queen Scarlet seems to be.

"WHO IS NEXT?!" Peril screeches. "I'll burn anyone else who dares disrespect Queen Scarlet!"

Peril's blood is boiling and her adrenaline is at its peak. She is panting heavily as she glares at each frightened SkyWing, growling as she does.

"That is quite enough, my champion," Queen Scarlet says, in a voice calmer than anyone has ever heard the queen speak in recent times, as she flies down from the highest pillar to land several feet away from Peril. She knows not to get too close to a dragon afflicted by firescales. "They have learned their lesson… _I hope_!"

All the SkyWings answer her together" "Yes, my queen! We will remain silent when Peril's future opponents end their own lives to avoid a battle to the death."

"You common SkyWings are smart after all," Queen Scarlet says. "Now come, Peril. I have to get you more coals before your firescales overwhelm you."

* * *

The MudWing known as Clay will never forget what he just saw below in the arena. He has heard of the SkyWing Kingdom from all the reading his friend, Starflight the NightWing, had done when they lived underground with Princess Tsunami the SeaWing, Princess Glory the RainWing, and Princess Sunny the SandWing-NightWing hybrid under the watchful eye of three guardians, Kestrel the SkyWing, Dune the SandWing, and Webs, a SeaWing, but none of them would have imagined the SkyWing Kingdom's residents being so bloodthirsty.

Queen Scarlet had killed Dune before their eyes, snapping his neck like a twig, claiming his injuries from fighting in the War of SandWing Succession, a missing wing and a lame leg, made him useless; they do not know what happened to Kestrel and Webs, but as mean as Kestrel had been to them, they hope she and Webs both escaped Queen Scarlet's wrath. Kestrel and Webs finding the Talons of Peace will be the only chance the dragonets of destiny have at being rescued from Queen Scarlet's clutches.

After witnessing such brutality, Clay nearly forgot that Princess Tsunami was by his side, until he looked to his left. Tsunami seemed to be as horrified by what just transpired as he was. Worst of all, they have no way of escaping; they are chained to these pillars and each other. They are prisoners, and the only time they have left these pillars since their capture at the base of the mountain where they had been hidden away by the Talons of Peace was when Queen Scarlet decided it was time for them to fight in the arena. So far none of Clay or his friends have had to fight in the arena, but even Tsunami dreads the day that comes. They would rather stay up here, where there is no fighting and they are brought a meal once a day, in spite of the unbearably cold air they must endure. That is better than having their bodies reduced to piles of ash by Queen Scarlet's champion.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Tsunami whispers. "I don't want to see any of you end up like that SandWing. Nobody deserves to die like that."

"I don't think Peril wants to be like this," Clay says.

"What are you talking about? She's a SkyWing just like Queen Scarlet! She's no different than any of them."

"I don't think so. If we just got to talk to her ourselves, she might be different from the rest. Did you see her face when Queen Scarlet was looking? She seemed sad about what she had to do to that SkyWing in the audience, and what happened to Horizon in the arena. I don't think she wanted to kill anyway."

"She sure seemed to enjoy using her kiss to kill that SkyWing, if you ask me," Tsunami growls. "It makes me sick to my stomach to know there are dragons like these SkyWings in our world. All they wanted to see was death, gore, suffering, and murder…they should all die."

"Oh, is that so?"

 _Queen Scarlet!_ Clay screams in his brain.

 _Oh no,_ Tsunami thinks.

"If you feel that way," Queen Scarlet continues. "How about one of you fights my champion in the arena tomorrow evening? Peril has never fought a MudWing or a SeaWing. I know she will _love_ to bestow her kiss of death upon dragons like you two. You in particular, Clay." She looks at Tsunami. "Offense meant, Tsunami. Peril isn't like that."

"Well!" Tsunami scoffs. "You're lucky I'm chained up!"

"You kill me?" Queen Scarlet laughs. "There isn't a dragon in this world that can kill me."

"Peril can kill you," Clay says confidently. "She _will_ kill you."

"My champion knows better than to lay a talon on me," Queen Scarlet says. "Without me, Peril would die. Nobody else knows where to find the coals Peril must eat to stay alive. Peril will not survive if she cannot eat coals, and I am the only SkyWing who knows where to find them. Peril cannot afford to kill me." She smirked evilly. "Peril will always be in my palm."

"You don't care about her!" Tsunami gasps. "She's only a tool to you! You are too lazy to kill dragons yourself!"

"We'll see about that!" Queen Scarlet screeches. In an instant, she has her sharpest talon held against Tsunami's throat. "One more word and your boyfriend here will know what your blood tastes like!"

"Don't!" Clay screams. "Tsunami. Stop."

Tsunami sighs.

"You will fight my champion tomorrow, _princess_." The way Queen Scarlet said "princess", it may as well have been an insult. There was no respect in her tone. "You will not live to succeed your mother Queen Coral. Tomorrow will be your last day of life, I promise you that."

And with that, Queen Scarlet flies off, leaving Clay and Tsunami to fear what tomorrow will bring.

Will tomorrow really be the last time Clay and Tsunami see each other?


	2. Chapter 1: Fire vs Water

**Author's note:** Won't be much of an author's note this time. I can't really think of much to say this time, besides that this chapter was also proofread by mikey1393drago.

* * *

 **Chapter 1:  
Fire vs. Water**

"Your time to _die_ has come, Princess Tsunami," Queen Scarlet says to the SeaWing the next morning. The SkyWing Queen has come personally to make sure Tsunami is delivered to the arena, an unheard occurrence in the history of the SkyWing Kingdom. "I won't want you to be late for your last day of life _princess_."

"Burn in Hell!" Tsunami barks.

"It will not be me who burns today," Queen Scarlet scoffs. "I've heard SeaWings burn remarkably well. It will be…thrilling for us all to see how my champion reacts to the first SeaWing she's ever seen up close and personal."

Clay begins screaming and thrashing, but he cannot get out of his chains. "Tsunami! NO! Get your hands off her Scarlet!"

Queen Scarlet slashes him across the face. "That is _Queen_ Scarlet you insect," she snarls. "You will not address me as otherwise, if you wish to live."

"Take me instead of Tsunami!" Clay pleads. "Please!"

"You're pathetic," she says. "Us SkyWings don't want to watch some backwater MudWing die. It will be much more _thrilling_ to watch my champion kill a SeaWing princess. Queen Coral's daughter no less. I'll make sure to have her father watch his daughter's execution."

"MY FATHER?!" Tsunami screams.

"Yes!" Queen Scarlet laughs wickedly. "We have captured your father, King Gill, too! But he's not doing so well. That's what happens when you don't give a SeaWing enough water. He kills any dragon we throw in the arena with him."

"You hag!"

"Come _princess_! It's time to thrill the audience with your execution! It will be a fight to remember for years to come!"

"You won't live to remember it! I'll rip your throat out as soon as your guards unchain me!"

"Peril will cremate you alive before you have the opportunity, if you try," Queen Scarlet says. "You better pray for a quick death in my arena. Peril will show no mercy on you."

"TSUNAMI!" Clay continues screaming. "Take your talons off my friend Scarlet! Bring her back! TSUNAMI! No!"

"Shut that damned MudWing up!" Queen Scarlet orders. "He's giving me a headache."

"NO! TSUNAMI!"

Clay's anguished voice echoes through the canyon and the arena below, but it does not convince Queen Scarlet to bring Tsunami back.

"I love you Tsunami…" he whispers. Clay quickly finds the courage to scream it. "I LOVE YOU, TSUNAMI!"

"Oh, isn't that _disgusting_!" Queen Scarlet gags as she walks Tsunami to the arena. "He wants to make little mixed breed MudWing and SeaWing chicks with you. I knew there was something wrong with that one the moment we captured him."

"I love you too, Clay…" Tsunami whispers. "But I'll never get to tell you that now…This may be goodbye."

"Come on, you brat. Why delay your death?"

Tsunami responds by biting Queen Scarlet on the shoulder. This prompts a violent response from the queen; she strikes Tsunami across the face so hard it knocks a tooth out.

"I told you once to keep your mouth shut," the queen hisses. "Maybe that will teach you."

 _I'm sorry I never got to tell you goodbye and that I loved you too, Clay,_ Tsunami thinks, for her jaw now hurts too much to speak. _I was hoping I'd get to tell you the feeling is mutual before she took me out of your hearing range…_

* * *

"Today's death battle will be between the beloved Queen Scarlet's champion, Peril, and the SeaWing princess and daughter of Queen Coral known as Tsunami!" a male SkyWing known as Prince Vermilion announces from the highest pillar above the arena. He is Queen Scarlet's oldest son who earned the right to announce at these death battles when he was only four years of age; the partial truth is that he's Queen Scarlet's favorite son and that is also why she chose him for the position. "Peril has never battled a SeaWing before! How will our queen's champion react to a dragon she has never seen before?"

"She'll keep her corpse as a prize when the battle's over!"

"Are you stupid? Peril won't leave anything left of that SeaWing princess! They have a weakness to fire! Peril could kill her just by giving her a pat on the back!"

"She'll rip out her stomach and have it for breakfast!" yet another says. "Peril hasn't even eaten yet, the Queen told me!"

"Prepare for the most _thrilling_ death battle any of you will ever witness!" Queen Scarlet takes over for her son. "This morning's battle will go down in history! LET IT BEGIN!"

Peril appears from a tunnel at the opposite side of the arena. Her eyes begin burning with anticipation the moment she sees that her opponent is a SeaWing.

"Oh, a SeaWing!" Peril says excitedly. "I have never had the pleasure to fight a SeaWing before! This will be fun…" she finishes ominously.

"Let me out of here!" Tsunami cries. She has not forgotten what Peril did to Horizon on the previous night.

"Come, princess of the SeaWings…" Peril growls. "…and embrace my kiss of death." Peril is showing her teeth, which are bloody from her last meal from the previous night, to frighten her next opponent. "I promised Queen Scarlet I would make your death a slow one. You will not miss a moment of the pain brought on by your scales burning from my touch."

"If I'm to die here," Tsunami decides, "then I'll take you with me! Your queen will have to find a new champion!"

"You can't kill Peril!" a female SkyWing in the audience calls out. "Nobody can touch her! Your talons will fall off before your eyes if you try it!"

"BRING ON THE GORE!" a male SkyWing perched in the row behind that female bellows.

Then there came the uproar from an entire section of the SkyWing audience provoked by his words: "Yes! Bring on the suffering, murder, and thrilling fight our queen has brought Peril here to give us!"

"I hope you aren't watching this Clay…" Tsunami whispers.

What she doesn't realize is that Queen Scarlet had him brought here to witness the death battle up close and personal. He's still chained up, but she is forcing the MudWing to sit by her throne to make sure he doesn't miss a moment of his friend's final moments in this world, now that he's admitted he loves her more than a friend.

"You'll have to find yourself a new girl to start a family with after this fight's over, MudWing," Queen Scarlet says. "I hope you find this as thrilling as I will, because you will be next to fight. If you refuse, then I will have you fight Peril instead of your intended opponent, some worthless IceWing whose parents willingly dropped him off here."

 _Please, Peril. I know there's a good dragon in you somewhere. Not all dragons are murderers. Don't kill my friend…_

"Now how should I begin burning your scales away, Tsunami?" Peril asks, as she begins walking around the SeaWing to examine her body carefully. Having never faced a SeaWing in a death battle before, Peril wishes to become familiar with its anatomy before she attacks. That is what makes Peril so dangerous. She is never quick to attack an opponent whose species she has never encountered for herself before.

"You should begin by realizing all this is wrong, Peril!" Tsunami says. "You don't have to be a murderer just because that hag up there wants you to be! We are dragons. We choose our own path in life! You don't have to do what Scarlet wants you to do!"

" _Queen_ Scarlet!" she shouts from her throne. "Forget my title again and your friend here can say goodbye to his throat!"

Tsunami screams. "CLAY! You let him go!"

"Oh, now what would be thrilling about that?" Queen Scarlet taunts. "I thought he'd want to be here to watch his best friend die, since he said he loves you so much."

"Well I love him too!" Tsunami blurts out. "I wouldn't want to put the only dragon I've ever loved through this!"

"It's too late for me to change my mind! Clay will watch you die here and now! Attack her _now_ Peril. Thrill this audience like you never have before, my champion."

"I hope you are ready to die, Tsunami," Peril says to the SeaWing. But then she notices Tsunami is not standing where she was. A split second later, something heavy hits the SkyWing in the head before disintegrating into a pile of ash. It was a piece of one of the statues of Queen Scarlet that had been set up in the arena.

Queen Scarlet is furious. "Make her suffer more than you would have, Peril! She will pay dearly for destroying my statues!"

"Oh, so you're a vain queen too! You can't do without looking at yourself everywhere you go!"

"SHUT HER UP!" Queen Scarlet roars. "Rip out her stomach and eat it!"

"She'll be lucky if that's all I do…" Peril grows. She lunges at Tsunami; the SeaWing dodges before any contact can be made, but she can still feel the heat coming from Peril's body when she slides across the arena ground passed her. "Are you really going to just dodge my attacks? I hope you know that you'll run out of energy long before I do. I've trained my entire life to fight like this for hours without stopping while you were living underground in a life of luxury waiting to fulfill some stupid prophecy."

"Clay told me he believes you don't want to do this!" Tsunami blurts out. "He sensed even when you were fighting Horizon that you are a good dragon on the inside. You just need to get away from your queen's influence over you!"

"There is no good in me!" Peril says. "I am born to fight! That's all I've ever known what to do! I won't stop fighting until the day I die!"

"But you don't have to. You can change. It's not too late."

"Let our champion spill your blood all over the arena!" another female SkyWing shouts. "Don't bore us with all this talk of 'Oh, you can change'! We didn't come here to witness a peace talk!"

"Kill her now Peril!" yet another female SkyWing says.

"Wait wait wait wait!" Tsunami says rapidly when Peril goes to strike. "They have been lying to you all this time! Whatever Queen Scarlet or any of _them_ have told you about your mother is a lie. She is not dead. We have lived with her under her protection for our entire lives. Her name is Kestrel."

"Lies!" Queen Scarlet says. "I saw her die with my own eyes when I saved you, Peril!"

"You…You've known my mother all these years? And they all lied to me, saying she died and Queen Scarlet had to raise me like her daughter?"

"And my friend, Starflight. He's a bookworm. What Queen Scarlet told you about having to eat coals to keep from being killed by your own firescales is a lie too. It says so in the scrolls Starflight would always read to us! Nothing these SkyWings have told you is the truth."

"It's more truth than those supposed scrolls are!" Queen Scarlet hisses. "If she does not eat the coals, Peril _will_ die. We've all seen it for ourselves what happens when she did not eat the coals once for a few days. She became dreadfully sick, almost couldn't eat her meals, and we nearly lost her! Do you think I would lie to a dragon I took so much time out of my life to raise when I could've just let her die in the forest like her treacherous mother?"

"Why would you lie to me?" Peril sobs. "I should kill _you_!"

"You want the real truth? Alright, but don't cry to me if you can't handle it. Your mother betrayed us when she become too attached to you and your brother when you were born, but she knew one of you would have to be killed since you have too much fire and your brother had barely any to himself. She tried leaving our kingdom to raise you and your brother, but we caught her at the river, where I gave her a choice. Either all three of you died, or Kestrel killed your brother to spare you. In the end, she chose to kill your brother, but she couldn't take you. Trying to carry you in her talons nearly cost Kestrel her foot, because of your firescales. So she left you to us. I have done everything I can to raise you and keep you alive. But those scrolls are wrong. None of us made it up that you _must_ eat coals or you will die from your own firescales, Peril." Queen Scarlet pauses. "Now _fight_. This is not very thrilling!"

" _No_ ," Peril says.

Queen Scarlet cannot believe her ears. "NO?! How dare you not obey an order from your queen?! Did you not hear me when I said your mother abandoned you?"

"You have made me be someone who I don't want to be all my life!" Peril snaps. "Tsunami is right. I never wanted to be a murderer! But…I cannot change now." She turns back to Tsunami with a burning glare in her eyes like nothing even Queen Scarlet herself has seen before.

Queen Scarlet suddenly becomes pleased with her champion again. "Uh oh," she chuckles. "This is about to get very…thrilling!"

"No! Peril! You don't have to do this! Stop!"

"Clay," Tsunami whimpers. "I love you…"

"FLY TSUNAMI!" Clay screams.

"She can't outfly me!" Peril says. "No SeaWing could. In case you haven't noticed, she's nowhere near water. I'll have the advantage over her no matter where it is she tries to flee."

"It won't stop me from trying!" Tsunami tips over the rest of the Queen Scarlet statue she'd already begun to vandalize. It falls right over on Peril; of course her firescales burn through it in very little time, but it gave Tsunami enough of a chance to fly over all the spectating SkyWings. Tsunami almost expected them all to fly after her but they actually start cheering. At first, she is relieved but then she hears what they are saying.

"Death battle in the sky!"

"Let her ashes rain down on us all, Peril!"

"Cremate her in the clouds!"

"Yes! Let gore and ash rain from above!"

"That will be thrilling!" Queen Scarlet says. "Now go get her my champion!"

The wild flapping of Peril's wings unknowingly sends some of her firescales blowing towards the chains not just around Clay's limbs but also those of his friends just above where Queen Scarlet wanted him to watch the fight from, where she has kept Glory, Starflight, and Sunny chained together.

 _Huh?_ Clay thinks when the chains around him begin to become ash. He notices the same happening to his friends' chains just behind him. _Maybe we can all escape after all. All five of us. But how are we going to get Peril off Tsunami's trail? She won't stop until she's killed Tsunami!_

A panic erupts among the SkyWings, particularly Queen Scarlet, suddenly.

"The dragonets of destiny are escaping!" Prince Vermillion cries out from his position up high.

"HOW?!" Queen Scarlet screams.

The SkyWing audience screams in unison, "Get the dragonets of destiny! Kill them all!"

However, every one of the SkyWings immediately scatters in every direction. All except for Queen Scarlet; she is so set on catching the dragonets of destiny herself that she does not see it coming until it's too late. A horrible burning pain erupts across her face as her scales begin to rapidly dissolve.

"RAINWING VENOM!" one of the SkyWings screams.

"Glory!" Sunny cries. "That was you!"

"Yes!" Glory says. "I won't let these SkyWings hurt any of you. Now let's save Tsunami from Peril!"

The SkyWings have never heard Queen Scarlet scream in such a way before; it sends them off in every direction. All except for Peril, who either did not hear her Queen's screams or she did not care, her intent on killing Tsunami is so great.

Suddenly Peril finds herself surrounded by four dragons, each of a different species.

"Well," Peril laughs. "Never before have I seen five dragons each from a different tribe working together!"

Tsunami rejoins her friends. She is nearly amazed to see Glory's fangs dripping with venom that she is ready to use against Peril if she has to.

"You can join us," Clay pants.

"Enough of that 'You can change' nonsense!" Peril snaps. "I can't change now. It's too late for me, Clay. I'll only change when I'm dead."

"Come with us," he repeats. "If you live with good dragons like all of us, you will see, you don't have to murder other dragons to keep all those SkyWings entertained. That is not the sort of life a dragon deserves to life. If we just left you here to live out the rest of your life like that, I don't think any of us could ever forgive ourselves. I know I won't."

Peril blinks. Her demeanor suddenly becomes much more relaxed. _Maybe he is right after all,_ Peril thinks. _It won't hurt if I join them, will it?_

"Peril!" a scream comes from below.

It is Queen Scarlet, and Peril is horrified by her new appearance. Glory's venom did not kill the SkyWing queen but it did leave the whole left side of her face burned down to the muscle below. It is a sight that makes even Peril, who should be no stranger to blood and gore considering her role in the SkyWing's society, feel sick to her stomach.

"Scarlet…?"

"That is _Queen Scarlet_ , Peril! You should know that!"

"Not anymore. From this day on, you're not my queen."

"Kill them all now! That is an order!"

"I will not," Peril says. "You are a fool if you dare attack any of us. We outnumber you six to one."

"Go on," Queen Scarlet groans. She can feel the RainWing venom coursing through her. Normally she would be up for a six vs. one fight, but Glory's venom is having an effect on her muscle strength. She knows she'd be the only fatality if she did fight Peril and the dragonets of destiny right now. "But know this. When I recover, I will not stop until I have killed the six of you. That is a promise you can expect me to keep. I will go to the ends of Pyrrhia, and beyond the island if I must, to kill you all. None of you will live to end this war. It will end on my terms, so enjoy your freedom while it lasts. My army will be after you all soon enough. And Peril, you will be the first one they kill for your betrayal."

The weakened queen flies off now, wanting no more part of conflict today. Queen Scarlet knows it will take her weeks, if not months, to recover from the RainWing venom that is coursing through her veins.

Once the six dragons have landed a relatively safe distant from the SkyWing Kingdom, Clay is the first to look at Peril.

"Thank you," he tells her. "I knew you would do the right thing."

"I should be thanking you," Peril says. "It is because of all of you that I am no longer blinded to the truth about Scarlet and her army." She turns to Tsunami. "I am sorry, Tsunami…I will understand if it takes time, but I hope you can forgive me for everything I said to you in the arena."

Tsunami does not speak. She turns away from Peril without acknowledging her apology. "Let's just go. I've had enough of this SkyWing Kingdom."

Peril feels hurt by Tsunami's response. Tears begin flowing down her cheeks, but they quickly evaporate on her firescales.

"Tsunami will forgive you with time," Glory says. "I know she will. Just give her space for a while, Peril, and she'll come around. The five of us have all been through a lot in the past months. She needs time to think before she can forgive anyone right now."

Peril laughs. "I wish I could hug you, Clay," she whispers, "as thanks for making me finally see everything clearly. But you know, my firescales…"

"You're welcome," Clay whispers back. "A thank you is good enough for me. Now come, Peril. We need to find shelter as far away from the SkyWing Kingdom as possible before nightfall. Scarlet will be sending her troops to look for us, I'm afraid."

"I think I know the perfect place we can hide," Peril says. "And you will like it Clay."

"Huh?"

"There is a swamp not too far from here. SkyWings would never go there. I'm afraid all the MudWings abandoned it, but it will be a good place to rest for the night." She laughs. "And maybe the mud will cool down my firescales."

"But Peril," Glory says with concern. "Scarlet said it is not a lie that you must eat coals to keep from being killed by your own firescales. Where can we find enough coals to keep you alive? There won't be coals in a swamp."

"I think Scarlet was lying to me," Peril says. "I didn't make it seem that way, but I haven't eaten coals in days and I'm fine. Normally I would be ill by now."

"So that means…"

"Yes, there was no truth to Scarlet's words about me needing to eat coals daily to survive with my firescales. But I wouldn't put it past her that she did something to make me so sick to make it seem like not eating coals would mean death for me."

"Poison in her food…" Starflight says.

"Exactly." Peril nods. "Let us fly to the swamp now, though, before it is too late. I see SkyWing troops flying above the walls of Scarlet's castle already."


	3. Chapter 2: Peril's Feelings

**Chapter 2:  
Peril's Feelings**

"Clay!" Glory and Tsunami whine.

"You really expect _us_ to sleep in mud?" Glory says. "We're not MudWings. I'm a RainWing and Tsunami's a SeaWing. I sleep in trees…"

"…and I sleep in water!"

"This isn't natural for our kind!" Sunny also complains.

"I'm all for it," Peril and Starflight say in unison.

"A mud bath would be _so_ nice," Peril says dreamily. She can already imagine how it might feel so nice and cool around her firescales. _I just wish someone could hug me without dying,_ she thinks sadly. _I'll never know what it feels like to be loved or to be a mother._

As quickly as the SkyWing had that thought, it was gone, and thoughts of diving into the mud replaced them. There was a low splash and a joyful yelp as Peril dived headfirst into the swamp. When she rose up from beneath the mud a minute later, Clay and the rest are surprised to see her backstroking in the mud and laughing joyously. Peril has never been this happy in her life, as far back as she can remember. She's had to fight dragons to the death for five years of her eight-year life, and it's never really been a fair fight. Even her gentlest touch alone was always enough to kill her opponents. Peril hopes she'll never have to return to the SkyWing Kingdom.

"She's changed so quickly," Glory whispers. "It's like she's a different dragon already."

Clay laughs. "Mud works wonders on a dragon," he says. "I told you. Now…" he slows his voice down. "…jump on in!"

Next thing Glory knows, she's up to her neck in mud and glaring at Clay, hissing with annoyance and her fangs dripping with RainWing venom.

"Yuck!" Glory groans. "CLAY!"

"Haha. Relax Glory. Doesn't the mud feel nice?"

"I guess. But the idea of swimming in dirty water still disgusts me."

"Ah, just swim out to where it's warmer!" Peril calls. "It's much nicer out here."

Glory decides to take her word for it; it's not like she has much of a choice, considering she's already in the mud.

"Oh…" Glory says. "You are right. This is amazing." The RainWing princess immediately rolls over on her back in a relaxed fashion. "I never want to…leave…" She yawns. "Uh. Getting sleepy already."

Sunny laughs. "At least she's not gonna be spraying her magical death spit at Clay now."

Glory's head perks up; she forgets about being sleepy. "Huh?" she gasps. "We are _not_ calling my venom magical death spit Sunny!" Suddenly a glob of mud covers up her face. "What? Clay!"

"Wasn't me." Clay shrugs.

"Peril?" The SkyWing just shakes her head. "Sunny? Starflight?" They both shrug too. "Tsunami…?"

"Darn! She figured me out!" Tsunami laughs. "Anyhow. INCOMING!"

Before anyone can react, Tsunami drops from above into the mud, sending mud flying in every direction. No dragon is left uncovered in mud when everyone calms down.

"You had a change of heart!" Glory laughs.

"Hey, you know what they say. If you can't beat them…"

"…join them!" everyone else finishes for her.

"I don't like this!" Sunny whines. "It's so cold and slimy."

"Ah, like I told Glory," Peril answers. "You just need to swim out to the middle where the mud gets warm. It's much better out here. Bring her on out Clay. She'll looove it out here!"

"Oh how I have missed mud!" Clay says. "The guardians only let us out of that cave once in our time there. Kestrel wasn't pleased when she found me swimming in mud after the rain passed over."

"Do you think I'll ever meet her?" Peril asks. "Kestrel? My mother?" She pauses. "And my father? Scarlet never said anything about him."

"If she and Webs are still living in the cave," Tsunami says, "you'll get to meet her. We all still remember where the cave is."

"Kestrel accepting us back is a different story, however," Glory sighs. "It's been so long since we were taken…and she probably thinks Dune's death is our fault."

 _But it is our fault_ , Clay wants to say. _If Tsunami and I hadn't left the cave, Scarlet wouldn't have found the cave and killed Dune._ He decides against speaking this thought at the last minute. He doesn't want to start an argument with the only friends he's ever had, especially over something from four years ago. Clay can't believe that's how long they were trapped in Queen Scarlet's prison, fighting every day for their lives against other dragons. He's just glad the nightmare is finally over, all five of them made it through, and they even made a new friend along the way.

Clay can't help but feel bad for Peril, however; she can never touch another dragon due to her firescales, and that means she won't ever get to feel any mate's loving embrace or be able to start a family when she eventually finds the love of her life somewhere out there. Any touch from Peril is a death sentence. He wonders if Peril herself has thought about that, that she will never be able to mate with a male dragon and start a family of her own, due to her firescales.

"Ah!" Sunny gasps when a ball of mud hits her in the face. "Alright who was it?" she laughs.

"Glory did it!"

"Hey hey, don't blame me. I'm over here warming my scales."

"Don't look at me!" Starflight laughs.

His friends are awestruck. " _You_?!"

"I didn't picture you as the type to have fun like that, Starflight," Tsunami laughs.

Starflight has the perfect good-natured response, of course. "Hey, no one pictured you and Glory as being the time to mud bathe but here you are."

"Touché," Tsunami and Glory say together, then stare at each other. A second later, they find their faces covered in mud, and none other than Peril was the culprit this time.

"Heh heh." Peril chuckles nervously when she sees the two princesses staring at her. At first they don't seem amused by then they come charging full-speed at Peril.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! STOP!" Peril screams. "You can't touch me! You'll die!"

Tsunami and Glory screech to a halt just as they come close enough to feel the heat radiating off Peril's firescales, before going off in opposite directions to get out of the danger zone. They were _that_ close to guaranteed death. One brush against Peril's body, even the lightest touch possible, and the princesses would have been watching the touched areas disintegrate into ash with no way to stop it.

"I think we should try to get some sleep, everyone," Clay announces. "It's getting late and today was a stressful day for all of us."

"He's right," Peril says with a yawn. "We can all mud wrestle again in the morning, if you really want to."

Clay realizes now how tired he really is. He unleashes a loud yawn. "Good night everyone," he says, curling up in the mud.

He takes note of how, unlike Tsunami, Peril, Glory, Starflight, and himself, Sunny has chosen to sleep in the trees. Clay supposes she's had enough of mud for one night, which he can't fault her for; not all dragons can adjust to the strange feeling mud has against their scales.

That is the last thing Clay remembers seeing before he falls asleep into a deep sleep. It's the first time he has been able to in the past four years; it is his first day of feeling free since before he was captured by the SkyWings.

* * *

Sometime into the middle of the night, Clay is woken up by a strange feeling in his gut. It's not hunger as it usually would be; it's more like a feeling that something has or will happen, but he's not sure what. He looks around to make sure everyone is accounted for; he sees Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, and Starflight are still sleeping in the warmest part of the swamp where he remembered them being, but he does not see Peril.

Immediately, Clay finds himself concerned for her; sure, it seemed what Queen Scarlet had claimed about Peril dying if she did not eat enough coals was a lie, but what if there was the small chance it _was_ the truth and Peril's decision to go several days without eating coals was costing her her life? He had to find her immediately, to see if she was alright or not.

Before he even stepped out of the mud, Clay decided he wouldn't wake the others unless he desperately needed to. He would feel terrible if he woke them and they all discover nothing is wrong. Tsunami can be cranky when she's waked up for no real reason; Clay knows that all too well. He still has the scars on his wing to remind him what happens when someone wakes up her and it's not important.

"Peril!" Clay calls out in a half whisper, so as not to wake his friends, but still loud enough for Peril to hear him. He doubts she could have gotten too far already. He knows Peril isn't the sort of dragon who would just up and go traveling at night. "Peril! Where are you?"

Suddenly the air feels warmer. Clay feels in his heart that Peril must be near. There's no other reason the air around him would suddenly feel warmer in a swamp. Then, just by simply turning around, he finds Peril. She is standing only ten feet away from him, looking up at the three moons of Pyrrhia. One of the moons is full, but the other two are only mere crescents.

"There you are," Clay whispers. "I was worried about you. I just woke up and you weren't there."

"I'm sorry. It's just, in the SkyWing Kingdom, I would always look up at the moon through the window in my room," Peril sighs. "I couldn't see them back in the swamp, but I didn't want to wake any of you."

Peril remains silent for what feels like an eternity before speaking again. In that time, Clay only stared up at the moon with her.

"Clay, can I tell you something?" she asks. "I've never told anyone this. I know all those SkyWings I grew up with wouldn't have cared."

"Of course you can." Clay nods. "I'll always hear what any of my friends have to say."

"I've longed so long to feel another dragon's loving touch," Peril begins, "but, as you and your friends all know, everyone I touch burns. It's a miserable way to live, knowing you'll never be able to embrace your future mate or start a family with him. I still haven't accepted the fact that even if I do find someone that doesn't fear my firescales, I won't be able to have any children with him, that my touch would kill him if we even tried."

"Peril, I—"

"Please, Clay. I'm not finished yet." Peril pauses. "You don't know how much it kills me that I can't sleep by your side, Clay. I could never talk about it around Scarlet or the other SkyWings, but I've always felt in my heart that you would be the one for me. But…you and I, we can't have children. It would kill you. And even if we could, I'd be taking you away from Tsunami. I realized that when you declared your love for her the day Scarlet came to bring her to the arena for our battle, after she declared her love for you when she thought she would not live another moment." She pauses again. "I'm done."

"Peril," Clay says. "I would do anything for you."

"Wait. What are you saying?" she asks, cocking her head to the left in confusion.

"You have wanted to feel the loving embrace of a dragon…"

"But it will kill you! You know that, Clay!"

"If someone can make you feel loved for once in your life," Clay says. "It may just be worth it."

"But your friends…What will Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, and Starflight do without you?" she asks. "Glory and I talked. She said you're like a leader, and a big brother, to them all. That if something happened to you, they don't know what they would do."

 _I know,_ he thinks. Instead, Clay says, "But I want you to be happy like the rest of us."

"I won't be happy if my want of feeling a dragon's loving touch gets you killed!" Peril protests. "Whatever it is you are thinking, Clay, you'd better forget it. I won't let you do this. It's insane!"

"It is said that there are some special MudWings whose scales can resist the heat of firescales," Clay tells her.

"But how can you know if you're one of them?!" Peril gasps. "It's too risky! One touch against my firescales and you could be watching your arm disintegrate!"

"It is a risk I am willing to take, if I can make you feel loved, Peril."

"No." Peril has never sounded so sure of something. "I don't want to take anything away from you just because of a hunch, Clay. I'll never forgive myself if I cripple or kill you over your hunch."

"Then it will be my fault and I'll accept it."

"But I won't! Your friends won't!"

"I want to take the risk, Peril." Clay pauses. "If I start to burn, I'll stop. Promise."

"No means no."

Clay sighs. "Alright. I suppose there is no convincing you."

But then something happens that is the one thing Peril feared would happen. She feels something embracing her tightly, caringly, before she has time to react.

* * *

"CLAY!"

"What in the world?!" Tsunami yelps when she wakes up.

"What is going on?" Sunny calls down from her resting spot in the tree.

"That sounded like Peril!" Starflight says. "Why would she be screaming like that?"

"She was screaming Clay's name!" Glory cries.

"It's Scarlet!" Sunny gasps. "Oh, we're doomed! We're all going to die in her arena now!"

They hear Peril scream again: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE CLAY?! I told you to never do that! OH CLAY! NO!"

"Come on!" Tsunami rallies them all out of the swamp. "Peril would never scream like that unless something is _really_ wrong."

"Somebody help! Oh, Clay! Why did you do this?!"

"We're coming Peril!" Tsunami and Glory cry together. "Clay! Just hold on!"

"CLAY! No! No! No! Why?! I've ruined everything!"

"Peril, what is—"

Tsunami immediately freezes when she arrives at the scene. She doesn't even budge when Glory crashes into her rear.

"Tsunami, what's the big—"

"Oh no!" Sunny screams.

The others scream in unison. "CLAY!"

"What did you do Peril?!" Tsunami demands.

Clay is lying motionless on the ground, his chest and front legs severely scorched, with a tiny pile of ash in front of him. He's not breathing, and his scales that are not gone are fire red.

"I did nothing!" Peril weeps. "It was Clay's idea! I told him to never touch me, that this would happen! Then as he walked past me, he hugged me! H-He started to scream…then I felt ash all over my body, but he just wouldn't let go until…until he…d-died! Oh, I am a terrible dragon…I loved him and his want to show I can be loved cost him his life."

"Go!" Tsunami bellows. "Get out of here! Now Peril!"

"Now Tsunami—"

"Shut up!" the SeaWing snaps. "Her intentions or not, she killed Clay. She's not welcome among us anymore. Now get out of here, you SkyWing, and go back to Scarlet before I kill you!"

"But you would die just at the touch!" Peril says.

"I said GO! Get out of here and never come back Peril!" Tsunami roars. "If I ever see you again, you will wish you never left Scarlet's pala—"

"Ts-Tsunami…" a voice groans.

"W-What?"

Clay's friends cannot believe their eyes. Clay is getting up from the spot he lay on the ground, tired but his scales seem to have healed themselves in a short period of time.

"How?!" Peril exclaims. "Nobody that my scales or talons have touched has lived before! They become a pile of ash in only a minute!"

Clay groans. His wounds have healed but they still hurt terrible. "Kestrel…she told me I hatched from an egg red as blood. Tell them the rest of the myth, Starflight. I…must catch my breath…"

"A dragon who hatches from a blood-red egg will have scales that resist nearly any flame," Starflight explains for Clay. "But the scrolls I used to read…They never said that meant such a dragon could touch a dragon with firescales and live."

"Don't you ever do that again Clay!" Tsunami cries. "You scared us all to death!" She immediately turns to Peril, and lowers her head submissively. "Peril…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have judged you so prematurely. If you can't forgive me…I won't blame you."

"Save your breath, Tsunami," Peril says. "You couldn't have known. None of us has heard of a dragon who can survive the touch of a dragon with firescales. I would have left had I caused Clay's death. You might have found my lifeless body before the moon's rise," she darkly adds. "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I caused the death of someone I love."

Tsunami shudders. _She loves him too?_ she thinks. _But she heard Clay and I declare our love for each other in Scarlet's arena. But what if she loved Clay before our declaration?_

"Please don't _ever_ pull that stunt again, Clay," Glory says to him. "I don't care if you're fireproof. We'd all be lost without you. You've always been like a little and a big brother to us. If you died, we would all feel like someone ripped our hearts out. You are the heart of our little group here. We can't lose you."

"You gave me a heart attack Clay!" Starflight chuckles nervously.

"I didn't even know you hatched from a blood-red egg," Sunny says.

" _You_ read Starflight's scrolls?!" Tsunami and Glory are awestruck. They didn't imagine Sunny being a bookworm like Starflight.

"Eh." Sunny shrugs. "You get bored of hearing Kestrel's screaming after a while. I had to find something to do to keep my mind off her screaming."

"My mother screamed a lot?" Peril asks.

"It was only because she wanted us to learn," Clay quickly says. "She didn't want to be so mean to us, but we didn't exactly listen to her, Dune, and Webs when we were young. Kestrel chained one of us up as punishment once."

Peril blinks. She'd always thought chaining dragons up as punishment was something only Queen Scarlet resorted too; then again, her mother is a SkyWing as well, so maybe that is commonplace among all SkyWings. _If I ever become the SkyWing queen,_ she thinks, _I would just lock prisoners away underground and do away with the gladiator fighting. I'd lock Scarlet away with them. But would I ever be ready to be Queen?_ is her next thought.

"Are you alright, Peril?" Clay asks.

"Huh? Oh." Peril pauses. "Yeah. I was just thinking about what it would be like if I were the SkyWing queen."

"You'd be better than Scarlet," Tsunami mutters. "Your first act as SkyWing queen should be burning her alive."

"I'd…rather find a way to rid myself of these firescales," Peril says. "They're like a curse."

"Scarlet probably knows how," Starflight says.

"You're gonna be the one to ask her?" Glory says. "I wish you the best of luck with that."

"No…" Starflight lowers his head in shame. He realizes now how stupid that sounded. "If I still had my scrolls, I could look for an answer! But Scarlet burned them all when she captured us!"

"You had scrolls that talked about firescales?" Peril asks excitedly.

"That's news to me if he did," Sunny pipes in.

"I can't say for sure, but I grabbed up all the scrolls I could from the library in the cave on the day we left," Starflight miserably explains. "If I did grab scrolls that could tell us more about firescales, they're gone because of Scarlet…"

Clay gives his friend a gentle pat on the shoulder. "It's alright, Starflight," he says. "We'll figure out something. Those scrolls couldn't have been the only ones on Pyrrhia that say something about firescales."

"Scarlet's library is full of scrolls," Peril says. "She used to have me spend hours reading them."

"But wouldn't your touch burn them?" Sunny asks.

"I didn't handle them. One of Scarlet's sons did that for me."

"We _can't_ go back there," Tsunami says. "It's suicide. After what Glory did to Scarlet with her venom, she won't chain us all up next time. She'll have us killed on the spot if she ever sees us again."

"Then we will go back to under the mountain," Clay says. "We'll be safe from Scarlet there. She wouldn't expect us to go back to the very place she found us escaping from four years ago. Then we can look through the library for scrolls or books to learn more about firescales."

"Kestrel won't be happy to see us…"

"Maybe she will, if she realizes her daughter is still alive," Glory says. "I think that is why she was always so mean to us. She had to live with the fear that her daughter was dead, on top of the guilt of being forced by Scarlet to kill her son. She'll understand."

"'Kestrel' and 'understanding' aren't two phrases I would put in the same book together," Tsunami spits. "Let alone same sentence. That's just wishful thinking, Glory."

"We won't know until we try," Sunny says.

"Then it's decided," Clay interrupts before the arguing gets too intense. "We're going back under the mountain."


	4. Chapter 3: Diamond Spray River

**Author's note:** I can't really remember what I was going to say relating to this chapter itself so I'll just get on with the crediting.

This chapter was written by both mikey1393drago and myself. (It happened on accident, I think. I forget the reason we ended up collaborating on this chapter, beyond the proofreading he normally does for me that is, but we did.)

* * *

 **Chapter 3:  
Diamond Spray River**

"There's Diamond Spray River!" Sunny called out. "We just need to follow it and Diamond Spray Delta and we're back to the mountains."

"That's easier said than done," Tsunami said with a sarcastic bite they would expect from Glory and not her. "That's a 550 mile flight to the edge of the mountains, and then we'll still have to fly _over_ them after that. That's another 350 miles. We've got 900 hundred miles to fly."

"Enough with the measuring Tsunami!" Glory cautioned, hissing at her. Her fangs nearly began dripping with venom, she was so annoyed.

"Tsunami," Clay said. "Are you forgetting how fast it is we can fly?" Tsunami just glares at him. "We'll be there in two hours at best."

"But for the scavengers, they'll take days on foot. Ha, ha. They are such losers," Sunny gleefully remarked.

"Enough Sunny!" Starflight barked

Sunny could believe her ears. How dare he talk to her like that? "Stop being demanding Starflight!"

"Demanding! Who even says I was?" Starflight snapped.

"No need to remark in that tone!"

"Yeah Starflight! That's not a nice way to treat your future mate!" Tsunami joked.

"I told you not to mention that!" He threateningly growled as the berating between them continued.

Peril by now was covering her ears as she flew beside Clay, wondering if at all they will even stop. "Are they always like this, Clay?" Peril asked.

"I'm afraid so! I've had my fair share of headaches when we've all been together as of late." The bickering did not seem to stop.

"Oh come on. When is it gonna end?"

As if Tsunami forgot about their argument, she began sniffing the air.

"Hmm." Her sniffing becomes more intense. Then she remembered the foreign smell. "WATER! Oh, four years in Scarlet's arena with barely enough has been too much for me!"

Without warning, she instantly dives down to the source of that smell.

"Tsunami, wait!"

Head first, the SeaWing dived right into Diamond Spray River.

"Oh, how I've missed you, water!" Tsunami cried dramatically, doing a backstroke in the river.

Peril just blinked, blindly wondering what she did just now.

"Em. What just happened?"

"She has missed water for four years," said Clay. "There is no way of stopping a SeaWing once they smell water. But damn, she just had to dive amidst the dangerous part of the river."

As if Tsunami heard them from beneath the river's surface, she came back up.

"There is no such thing as dangerous water for a SeaWing!" she declared.

"Darn it Tsunami!" Sunny screeched like a frightened bird. "Don't startle me like that!"

"I didn't know she could hear so well…" Starflight whispered. "Remind me not to talk about her behind her back again."

"If water is not dangerous, then how do you explain the flock of dragons now following us Tsunami!" Clay stated, clearly not amused by the intrusion.

 _Huh?_ Tsunami wondered. She turned around to see what it is Clay was talking about.

Sunny turned her head and stares in fright.

"SeaWing attack! Run away!" Sunny sped off, right into a beeline for Clay.

"Oof!" Clay caught her. "Goodness!"

He rapidly glared at the flock of SeaWings, looking as though they were ready to fight.

"Lay one claw on us, and I'll show what firescales can do!"

She sped off in front of the others, then rapidly halted the moment Tsunami hovered in front of her, raising an arm and glaring towards her.

"No Peril! They are SeaWings! I will discuss with them first! Stay out of the way!"

Peril did not wish to charge ahead now that Tsunami was in the way. She may go straight through her and kill her suddenly, giving the SeaWings more of a reason to kill her themselves. She backed down upon imagining the scene that would entail, had she killed Tsunami without meaning to.

"No holds barred, when I find out they are here to kill us Tsunami!"

"What is the meaning of this!? We mean you no harm!" One of the SeaWings threateningly growled at her incursion.

"You are in our turf! How dare you come here and disturb our waters!?"

"Your waters? You don't own them, mother does! Now leave us be!"

"Mother?" At first, he was unsure why this SeaWing stranger mentioned her mother owns these waters, but then he understood she must in fact be one of the many daughters of Queen Coral!

However out of line, another SeaWing charged for her ready to strike with his tail to force her down to the ground, threateningly flashing his back stripes brightly to tell her he means business.

"Prince Cerulean, no!"

Within seconds Tsunami dodged him mid flight, before striking the back of his head to send him plummeting to the river unconscious. Suddenly, another SeaWing came diving out of the river charging for the flock that look like they were going to battle, the moment Cerulean crashed in the waters. He gestured with his talons to the other two with him 'Inform mother!', but for some reason one of them seems to recognize the SeaWing hovering in wait for her next attacker.

"Commander Shark! What is the issue here!?" he shouted rapidly, flying in his direction.

"All hail Prince Turtle!" They saluted in Aquatic a respective pattern of bioluminescence at the same time Tsunami did. Her friends bowed in respect upon his appearance, after Tsunami glared at them. "This SeaWing has invaded our territory, but she claims Queen Coral is her mother!"

"That's because she is my mother! I am Princess Tsunami!"

"Princess!" Prince Turtle paused in shock. "Sister!" He simply gestured a harmless insult with the flashing of his tail stripes, not pleased with his sister's sudden appearance.

"'Squid brain'! I hope you know who it is you are talking too, brother Turtle! Mother will not be pleased with your rude remark to your lost sister!" Without warning another SeaWing, this time female, clouted Prince Turtle across his head.

"Turtle! Show your respect! She is older than you!"

"Why should I? You said she's been gone for eight years. She abandoned us! I waited for years, hoping she would return, until I just hated her for her disappearance!" Immediately after raising his voice, he started to cry before, forcing himself out of his sister's grip. "Why?! Why did you leave us?!"

His sudden wail hit Tsunami as though her stomach had just been punched.

"I didn't leave you. I was taken as an egg by the Talons of Peace, and then Queen Scarlet captured me three years after that. I tried for four years, tried to get away and come back to you! Please, don't cry anymore."

"I'll never forgive you!" Prince Turtle rushed off in distraught, back into the river from whence he came.

"Don't mind him Tsunami. He has been struggling to cope for all these years ever since your disappearance. It is wonderful to see you once more. Mother will be so pleased to know you are safe and well." She turns her attention to Commander Shark. "Inform Queen Coral that Princess Tsunami is alive!"

"With all due respect, Princess Aquamarine, what will we do with Loch?"

"Let mother decide on that."

"Very well." He turned to his battle clan. "Dismissed!" After they saluted him, he turned his gaze back to Princess Aquamarine. "I will inform our Queen of this news, my Princess." Before he headed off, he saluted Tsunami. "Please Princess. Come back soon. She misses you dearly."

"My return will come just as soon as our guardians know we are safe and well."

"Thank you, princess." He bowed before catching up with his troop towards the Sea Palace.

Aquamarine hugged her sister under salted tears, before kissing her cheek not wishing to reveal what she knew the queen would not.

"I-I always thought I would have had more sisters," Tsunami whispered.

"You should," Aquamarine sighed. "There was fourteen of us originally…but then Princess Burn attacked mother's palace. She and her troops butchered twelve of our sisters in one battle. Thankfully your little sister Anemone wasn't born yet…" She paused. "Worse yet, someone has been killing your mother's heirs for years. We do not know who or how they do it without getting caught. You, Anemone, and two unhatched eggs are Queen Coral's last living daughters."

Tsunami looked down to her webbed feet. Learning of this, she felt like her heart has been ripped out, and she never even knew any of her deceased sisters; due to her time under the mountain, she was taken away from her family before she had even hatched from her own egg. Before she could ask anything else her sister silenced her with another caress, before heading off in hope she returned soon.

"That was a little too close for comfort," Sunny said a few minutes later. "I would've died if I had to watch Peril burn another dragon…"

Peril cleared her throat. "I heard that."

However, despite the cheerful subject change, Tsunami still hovered in silence under thought about what happened while she had been away, beating herself up inside for how useless she has been all this time. If only she was not captured, she might have been able to save all her siblings from the heartless slaughter that had taken place assuming their guardians would have let her leave the mountain anyway. That was when she let a tear fall from her eye, watching it plummet and splash into the river down below.

Clay was now worried about her silence, and tried to cheer her up like the big brother figure he is supposed to be.

"Tsunami, I…"

"Please Clay. I do not wish to speak about it."

Clay knew she was upset and therefore casually hugged her in the air, measuring the beat of his wing with her own so they do not lose their stability. Peril could see he has a pure heart, and imagined the comfort he gave Tsunami as if she were there instead. But all this would be in vain, if ever he hugged her again. His screams that night horrified her to the bone, and she never wished for it to happen again, no matter how much she longed for the touch of another without causing them sheer agony and death, hatred or fear. She now believed her ability was a curse, and slowly headed off amidst her undying sadness.

Peril plopped herself down at the edge of the river. The grass where she was sitting quickly disintegrated, but she did not care. She can feel her tears sizzling against her firescales as they flowed from her eyes, while one thought crosses her mind again.

 _What is even the point of living if I can't start a family with Clay or any other male?_

Even as is he still hugging Tsunami, Clay noticed Peril sitting by herself at the edge of the river. It irked her that Glory, Starflight, or especially Clay aren't there talking with her. Do they not see she's upset? Clay cannot help but feel it is his fault however, his heart telling him that her witnessing him hugging Tsunami had made Peril feel worthless. He should have known better, he thought, that Peril would have felt that way for not being able to lovingly embrace another dragon.

"I'll be right back, Tsunami…" Clay whispered. "I need to fix a mistake."

"What?" Tsunami cocked her head in confusion.

"Peril. She saw you and I embrace," he said. "I can't live with myself if I just let her feel like I don't care about her either. I'm sure you understand, Tsunami."

The SeaWing can only nod her head in response. It's not like she could stop Clay from going to Peril anyway. If there's one thing that MudWing was, Tsunami believes, it was being resolute. Almost nothing can change his mind.

"Peril," Clay said softly.

" _What_?" the fiery SkyWing snapped. Then she realized it is Clay. "Oh. I'm sorry, Clay."

"I should be the one apologizing," he gently corrected her. "I know you long to feel a dragon's touch…I feel like I rubbed it in your face by embracing Tsunami up there. I shouldn't have done that."

"No, Clay. It was the right thing to do. You're the best friend any of them could ask for. I know you didn't mean for me to feel this way."

"That doesn't make me feel right about it." Clay began to move closer.

"No, no, no!" Peril backed up into the river, which began steaming due to the presence of her body heat. "Please don't Clay. I don't want to put you through so much pain again." Peril had flashbacks to the night where everyone, herself included, thought her fiery touch had killed him.

Regardless, Clay placed his front paw on Peril's shoulder, A great sensation of burning rushes through it, but Clay ignores the pain. It was worth the pain to make Peril feel accepted among them. Eventually, it seemed to work, for Peril smiled the first real smile since their escape from Scarlet's palace.

"Where now?" Peril asked strongly.

Clay smiled at her. They noticed Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, and Starflight joining them.

"To where we intended to head before, to the mountain to see if Kestrel and Webs are still there," he said. "I can't speak for Kestrel when it comes to my friends, but I think Webs will be happy to see us, and Kestrel will be happy to see her daughter again."

"Yeah. Would anything cure Kestrel of her anger issues?" Glory scoffed. "I've never even seen her smile."

"There's a first time for everything, Glory," Sunny said.

"While you're at it you might as well say Scarlet will turn over a new claw and turn her prison into a shelter for dragons without a home!" Tsunami interjected. "If she's even still alive that is. Glory's venom was doing a number on her face the last time we saw her."

"Kestrel is no Scarlet," said Starflight. "She can change. Someone like Scarlet will never change."

* * *

"Webs, face it!" the angry SkyWing ranted. "Those dragonets are as _dead_ as Dune, Asha, and Hvitur!"

"How can you just talk about them like that?" Webs asked. "They died for those dragonets."

"You think I don't have nightmares about finding Hvitur's body, his head stabbed clean through by one of the SandWing sisters' tail?" Kestrel hissed. "Or when we found Dune's body with his broken neck! And I was there when Asha breathed her last breath! I stayed with her until the bitter end! How do you think it feels having to live knowing I couldn't save the only part of Clay's family that ever cared for him?! His aunt Asha in case you're too dense to know who I'm talking about! Look here you SeaWing dunce, Scarlet captured those dragons _four years_ ago! There's no chance in Hell they have survived in her prison all this time! What do they know about fighting?!"

"Fighting comes naturally to dragons…"

"Yeah, if they had adults like us teach them first! I'm damn sure none of us taught those five anything about self defense, fighting techniques, and war in the three years we raised those brats!" Kestrel changed the subject. "What's it matter anyway? We don't have the dragonets of destiny anymore. The prophecy can't be fulfilled, so this war's gonna rage on until Blaze, Burn, and Blister can agree on who should be the next SandWing queen, or at least until two of those sandhags are dead."

"Blaze would be the only good one of the bunch to be the SandWing Queen," Webs said. "She may not fight with a damn and is the most ditzy, vain dragon I've ever met, but at least she's not an ugly, battle scarred dragon like her sisters, who can only think about murder. I'd gladly be her king if she was looking for a mate."

Kestrel coughed. "Ugh, why would you want to be the king to Blaze?"

"What? She's a pretty dragon."

"And you're not a SandWing!"

"Who cares?" Webs snapped. "Blaze and I could still start a family."

"Who says she'd want to sleep with a SeaWing who used to be an ally of the Talons of Peace anyway?" Kestrel reminded him. "She hates the Talons of Peace. You know that!"

"She's never had a male in her life Kestrel," Webs disagreed. "I'd be willing to give her a chance, and I think she would accept."

Kestrel snorted. "Yeah, keep on dreaming SeaWing. The last thing Blaze would do is get laid by one of her former enemies in this war."

"At least I have a chance at children," Webs muttered.

"EXCUSE ME!" Kestrel roared. "You didn't have to leave your son and daughter behind at the mercy of Scarlet, so watch your tongue you SeaWing or else I'll rip it out next time!"

Webs talonpalms. _Why did I have to say that out loud…?_

Kestrel stormed off in a fury. "Stupid SandWing lover! Have children with Princess Blaze! What is he stupid!? I should stab him with my tail! Stupid! Stupid! Idiot! Disrespectful SeaWing scum! UGH!"

Webs blinked. _She needs a real male in her life. Not some dragon that was part of Queen Scarlet's breeding program._ The SeaWing looked around. _There isn't much of a selection down here. I have my eyes set elsewhere_ , he also thought, picturing himself by future Queen Blaze's side as her king, _and I don't think she'd want me as her mate for life anyway._

"What is wrong with dragons in this world?!" Webs heard Kestrel continuing to rant. "Am I the only sane one left?!"

"I'm heading out on a hunt!" Webs called to Kestrel. "Did you want me to catch anything for you?"

"Catch a SkyWing's blade in your skull!" Kestrel roared back. "I'll hunt my own food when I'm hungry! I don't need your help!"

"Fine," Webs huffed. "Don't say I didn't offer later!"

"JUST GO ALREADY!" Kestrel roared from around the bend. "Before I decide to serve up well-done SeaWing for dinner _right now_!"

Before Webs could leave the relative safety that is under this mountain, he heard voices from just outside the entrance.

"Did you hear someone screaming?" a female voice said.

"No. Why?" a male answered her.

 _SkyWings_ , Webs thought.

"Well I did," Tourmaline argued. "Sounds like two dragons were having a disagreement…under a mountain. You know what mother said to do with any dragons living under a mountain in the southernmost part of her kingdom."

"Do we really have to kill every defenseless dragon we find on patrol just because mother says so?" asked Hawk.

"Oh, you worm. I knew I should've brought Vermillion instead," Tourmaline growled. "At least your brother's not afraid to cut a few rebel dragons' throats. Why mother wanted you to come along with me this time, I'll never know."

"She wanted Vermillion by her side while she recovers from that RainWing venom, don't you remember?"

"Yeah, she probably wanted you out of her palace for a little while too!" Tourmaline spat. "Everyone knows you're her least favorite son. And you're my least favorite brother. Why you weren't one of our two brothers that died in that last battle, I'll never know. We'd be so much better off if you'd died in place of one of them."

Hawk frowned. He tried not to let Tourmaline see his tears. He knows how the rest of his family felt about weakness, but it's hard not to shed tears when being talked about this way by his own sister. "That's no way to talk about your brother…I'm as much flesh and blood as they were."

"You're also spineless!"

"Better to have a heart and no spine than have a spine and no heart," Hawk muttered. "You should learn mercy."

"Mercy is for the weak! For cowards! You'll never be a real SkyWing with that kind of belief."

"Maybe being a coward is the right thing to do sometimes," Hawk sighed. "The way you all treat me, I wish I could just disappear and never come back."

"Keep talking this nonsense and I'll make you disappear myself!" Tourmaline growled. "How's ten feet down in a swamp sound?"

 _Poor kid,_ Webs thought. _Maybe not all SkyWings are bad. I want to do something to help that little one, but that's Scarlet's eldest daughter. I can't fight her alone._ Then it hit him. _Kestrel. She knows how to fight other SkyWings. But will she listen._

"You're still hear Webs?" Kestrel said.

"Shush!" Webs hissed. "SkyWing patrol!"

"What?"

"I don't think they're both loyal to Scarlet, however," Webs told her. "That smaller one, the little brother. I overheard him say that he doesn't feel right about killing every enemy dragon they find. His sister says she's about to bury him in the swamp if he keeps talking that way."

"Let her," Kestrel whispered. "What happens among Scarlet's children is none of our business."

"Don't you believe in doing the right thing?"

Kestrel blinked. Of course she did, but she also believed in staying out of conflict as much as possible. There's a reason she and Webs are the only dragonet guardians who were still alive. "You know I do," she said. "Why ask such a stupid question?"

"Then why don't you do the right thing now?" Webs asked. "That young SkyWing, he doesn't want to, but Tourmaline, she's going to barge right on in here and kill any dragons she finds. We have to do something before she gets the chance."

"Fine," Kestrel grumbled. "But that little SkyWing is your responsibility if we save him Webs. I want no part in raising any more dragonets. It already cost me three friends. I'm done babysitting for the Talons of Peace. I want to live my own life and start a new family without fear of death everyday just because I'm an ally of the Talons of Peace."

"So you are, are you?" they heard Tourmaline say. "Hear that Hawk? Now we have a reason to kill these two. They're with the Talons of Peace. That makes them an enemy to our mother, to Queen Scarlet, so they must die."

Kestrel flapped her wings aggressively. "If there's one thing in this world I can't stand more than senseless murder," she declares, "it is dragons like you who do not know how to treat your siblings with respect. Dragons like you deserve to die."

"Too bad you too won't get the chance to protect this little worm that I'm forced to say is my brother!" Tourmaline growled. Now she noticed Hawk's tears. "A real SkyWing wouldn't cry at a few insults."

"If you had a heart in your chest, you would realize that isn't true!" Webs said. "Your brother is hurt by your words. We cannot blame him for wanting no part in your family."

What happened next amazed Webs.

"Come here," Kestrel said softly. "A life with a sister and mother like her and Scarlet isn't a life worth living. Webs and I'll…er, we'll take care of you."

"Not if I kill you two first!" Tourmaline screamed and lunged at Kestrel.

Webs reacted immediately. He also lunged, knocking Kestrel out of the way just in time to spare her from what would have been a fatal strike. Webs was not so lucky. Kestrel felt the warmth of dragon's blood across her face as Tourmaline's talons rip through Web's throat.

The SeaWing fell down in a pool of blood.

"WEBS!" Kestrel screamed.

"Why did you do that sister?!" Hawk cried.

"They are the enemy! They deserve death!"

"Oh Webs…" Kestrel sobbed. "You didn't have to take that hit for me…"

Webs smiled weakly. "Kestrel," he whispered. His words were becoming weaker with every one that he spoke. "That's what…friends do…for each other…" Then his head collapsed at Kestrel's wobbling knees, and his labored breathing ceased.

Kestrel began shaking the SeaWing.

"No! Webs! Please! No…" She feels like her heart has been ripped out when she realized Webs was gone. "WEBS!" The SkyWing's anguished voice echoed through the cave. While Hawk took pity upon Kestrel, Tourmaline only felt sick to her stomach. "I never meant to be angry with you…I didn't want you to think I was when you died…"

"Oh, this is making me want to throw up!" Tourmaline coughed. "Get over it already."

Kestrel's eyes became wide with fury. Her talons scrap across the stone, making an unpleasant screech, as she gets up.

"You will pay _dearly_ for what you did to Webs!" the SkyWing hissed. "Don't think because you are that hag Scarlet's daughter, I will show you any mercy. I remember you when you were just a runt being picked on by the older SkyWings."

Tourmaline shuddered a little. _How does she know that?_ she wondered. _Unless…she's the soldier that betrayed mother and killed her son! Peril is her daughter!_

"Do you think that gives you any right to treat your brother that way now!" Kestrel screeched. Her sudden attack gives the SkyWing princess no chance to react. "Murderer!"

"He should've stayed out of the way! You were my intended target!" Suddenly, Tourmaline felt a searing pain from behind. She furiously spun her head around to realize it was _Hawk_ attacking her, wearing her steal talons meant only for actual soldiers in their mother's army. "Traitor! You will die just like that SeaWing!"

"Don't be so sure!" Kestrel attacked Tourmaline again, this time with a sharpened stone, an arrowhead dropped by a scavenger that had been hunting in his area a few days prior. Blood sprayed as the stone found itself buried deep in Tourmaline's jugular vein.

Tourmaline immediately dropped like a leaf. The SkyWing princess was dead before she hit the ground.

Hawk immediately bowed before Kestrel, as if she's a queen or something.

"What are you doing?" Kestrel asked.

"I do not serve Scarlet anymore," Hawk said, continuing to bow. "I do not wish to even consider her my mother anymore. I have seen the things she allows in the arena. It makes me sick to know her blood flows in my veins."

"You don't have to be like your mother," Kestrel said. "I abandoned her years ago and joined the Talons of Peace with the hopes I would stop her one day. Now get up…What is your name?"

"I have no name," Hawk said. "No name that I wish to keep. Hawk is what my mother named me, but I do not wish to bear a name she gave me any longer."

Kestrel tapped her talons on the stone for a minute. "How does Drakon sound?" she suggested. "I know, it's not special, but it means 'dragon', so…"

"That is perfect," said the SkyWing now known as Drakon.

Kestrel suddenly all but forgot about Drakon. She returned to Webs' side, now remembering to let her tears flow. "Thank you Webs," she whispered. "I am sorry for being so angry with you before this happened…I don't think I'll ever forgive myself."

"Hey," Drakon softly whispered. "I don't think he would be angry with you." He paused. "You couldn't have known this would happen. Dragons argue, it happens, and we can't predict the future."

"But I threatened to serve him as dinner…and now he's gone!" Kestrel sobbed. "I never should have said such a thing even if we had been fighting…It was not right!"

"We all make mistakes," Drakon said. "You can't beat yourself up when you know in your heart Webs wouldn't be angry with you."

Kestrel couldn't believe how smart this SkyWing is for his age. Placing a paw on his shoulder, she smiled at Drakon. This was the first time Kestrel had smiled since she lost her children. She could not go without letting her slight happiness be tainted by the loss of Webs, however;. She was thankful that she's not alone, but she would rather Webs still be alive. Kestrel had now lost all her friends because of this war.

"What now?" Drakon asked his new leader.

"We hunt," Kestrel said. She wiped away more tears. "That is what Webs was just about to do."


	5. Chapter 4: Rage of the Sky Queen

**Author's note:** Just so readers are aware, I don't think every chapter I post will have an author's note, unless I need to say something that isn't know already. I'm sure everyone who's been reading this from the start knows a friend of mine proofreads this. And when there are chapters where he also writes a part of it with me, I'll just continue to mention those individually.

Also, I am going to post every chapter I've completed so far in my Google Document right now. That's going to be Chapters 4 through 9, but I don't want to keep this story behind in terms of posting all the chapters I've written so far. So I'm going to post them all today just to feel like I'm 'caught up' with the story.

And I want to point out that the description of Scarlet's face was taken from one of the Wings of Fire novels. I couldn't say which one as I'm only part way through Book 3, and I happened to see it on the wiki and thought 'I couldn't describe her injuries better myself' so I used that description of her face for this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 4:  
Rage of the Sky Queen**

"Queen Scarlet, I have horrible news," said a SkyWing scout.

"What could be more horrible than _this_?" snarled Scarlet. "That RainWing's venom destroyed my face. I'll never be looked at the same way by the other SkyWings again! I'll have to wear a steel mask over my face in every battle!"

"It is your daughter. Tourmaline," the Scout said without awaiting permission, something he would normally never do. "We found her body by the cave where you captured the dragonets of destiny four years ago. She's dead."

Scarlet tried not letting herself cry. She won't let her subjects see her cry. "W-What?" she stammered. "My eldest daughter is…dead?"

"I'm…afraid so," he says hesitantly.

"TOURMALINE!" Scarlet broke down. She could not contain her emotions anymore, despite her initial thought, and began to sob. "I will find out who killed you and hang them from the highest tree!"

Queen Scarlet tried to get up from her bed.

"No, your majesty! You must rest!"

"I will not rest until I avenge Tourmaline! Get off me or I'll leave you to have your eyes plucked by crows!"

Prince Vermillion, for he was Queen Scarlet's eldest child now, entered her chamber, at the queen's request. He had not seen his mother since she was wounded, and was shocked by her condition. The side of the SkyWing's face was melted into a hideous dark mess, revealing a glimpse of her jawbone underneath and pulling one of her yellow eyes down and out of proportion with the rest of her face. The rubies that had been embedded in her scales were gone above that eye, and so were all her earlier adornments - the golden chain mail, the medallions, the rings on her claws, the rubies on her wings. The only jewels left were the tiny rubies above her good eye. It was as though the SkyWing queen had lost her vanity the same day part of her face was melted by Glory's venom.

"Ah. Vermillion. My eldest," said Scarlet. "Tell these fools who doubt I am fine to leave my palace to avenge your sister. They do not think I have had enough rest yet!"

Vermillion clicked his talons nervously on the floor.

"Umm…"

"Come on!" the SkyWing queen demanded. "Tell them!"

"I do not think you should yet," Vermillion said. "RainWing venom is deadly. You need your…rest." _Oh no._

"Is everyone against me all of a sudden?!" Scarlet bellowed. "Is my grandchild the only dragon I can trust anymore?" She sets up on the edge of her bed, now furious at even her eldest child. "None of you will stop me from avenging Tourmaline and finding Hawk. Anyone that dares get in my way will be lucky if all I do to them is send them to the arena to fight for their right to live for the rest of their lives. You are no exception when I say this, Vermillion. Get in my way and you will feel my claws tearing your throat open, if I do not choose to send you to my arena."

Prince Vermillion gulped and backed up, bowing his head obediently but saying nothing. He now realized how big a mistake it was to anger his mother in such a hard time for her. He wasn't really all that close to his sister so he wasn't very broken up by the news of her death, but he's not about to admit to that around his mother who very clearly was. She'd probably kill him with no regrets. Sure he's Queen Scarlet's favorite son but that doesn't mean he's safe from being killed by her if he does something to really anger her like talking negatively about Princess Tourmaline.

"Now who will come with me to find Tourmaline and Hawk?" the queen bellowed. Vermillion immediately volunteered, as did a handful of other SkyWings who had been called to Queen Scarlet's chamber. The rest remain silent, bowing their heads respectively. "That's more like it. The rest of you, find something to do while we're away. Torment the slaves and scavengers or something. Just don't let me see any of you disloyal worms for a while when we return!"

* * *

"Enough enough!" Scarlet snarled. "Just lead me to where you all found Tourmaline's body already. I'm not going to have the energy to fly around this pathetic landscape all day!"

Vermillion nearly said "Then why didn't you stay at the palace to rest and send us out to find it?" but he bit his tongue until it bled, knowing his mother would have killed him right away if he said such a thing even if she wasn't in a foul mood.

"It's just outside the cave where you captured those dragonets four years ago," another SkyWing decided to remind her. "We didn't touch anything and reported back to you immediately."

"At least you know how to be loyal," Scarlet muttered. "Some of you should take lessons from him!"

The rest bowed their heads in shame when Scarlet scowled back at them with her one good eye. Her melted face just makes her all the more terrifying when she's in this kind of mood. She now looked more like a monster that dragonets would fabricate in their nightmares than someone that was the queen of a kingdom.

"It's just down there now!" said the same SkyWing a few minutes later. "Nobody has disturbed her body, it seems."

"You're blind!" a female SkyWing screeched. "Someone's taken all Princess Tourmaline's treasures she wore on her body."

"What does it matter now?" a second female said. "The Princess doesn't need treasure in…" Her voice faded into silence when she saw Queen Scarlet frowning at her, as if to say 'Have some respect for the dead!'.

The troop of SkyWings descended down to where Princess Tourmaline's body lay. While the rest kept their distance from her, Queen Scarlet slowly walked forward to her daughter's body. She was not even trying to hide her tears anymore; they fell down onto Tourmaline's body as Queen Scarlet collapsed, feeling miserable. If there was one of her children she loved above all the others, it would have been Tourmaline. She never complained, never disobeyed orders, and was the perfect daughter a SkyWing like Scarlet could have dreamed about raising.

 _And there won't ever be another like her_ , Scarlet sadly thought. _A daughter like Tourmaline only comes once in a lifetime. She would have made a great queen when I am gone. I would have given up my position as queen to her when the time came without any fighting. But now I have no daughter who would be an ideal heir to my throne when my time comes._

Scarlet sniffed and wiped away her tears, but they just came right back. "Do you know w-who could have done this?" she said weakly. The SkyWing queen is a complete mess.

The SkyWing scout who had proven himself beyond loyal to Scarlet so far stepped forward nervously.

"Last we knew, Kestrel and Webs were still alive," he said softly. "You only killed Dune, out of the three dragons guarding the dragonets of destiny. It could have been them, but I cannot be sure. There is no sign of them nor Prince Hawk."

"I wouldn't be so sure," said another male SkyWing. He's just dug up a mound of dirt, not knowing it had been a grave until now. "This must be Webs, I take it?"

"Yes, it is." Scarlet seemed satisfied knowing the SeaWing was dead. "At least my daughter didn't go down without a fight. Now we just need to find Kestrel and kill her to avenge Tourmaline. It had to have been her who killed my daughter."

"She has to still be somewhere in that cave. Kestrel has nowhere else to go. Your patrols are everywhere day and night."

"Then get in there and find that traitor already!" demanded Scarlet. "You're not here just to stand around and look like idiots!"

Each of the SkyWings saluted Scarlet before rushing into the cave. She noticed them splitting up into groups of one to search the entire cave system for Kestrel, and hopefully the missing prince as well, when she weakly walked through the mouth of the cave.

Scarlet can hear them yelling.

"She must be here! These are fresh talon marks!"

"Look in every tunnel, chamber, and crevice for her!"

"If you find her, don't bother shouting out! Just kill her!"

"Prince Hawk has been here too! It's like Kestrel led him this—"

A painful screech concluded her sentence.

"What is going on?!" Scarlet shouted down the tunnel from where the sound came.

"She's dead!"

"Kestrel slashed her head clean off!"

Another screech reached Scarlet's ears a second later.

"Where are you?!" a third SkyWing screamed before dying. Scarlet hears his dying call. Then another and another.

"Get out of there!" she commanded but not soon enough. She heard two simultaneous screams and thuds of bodies from somewhere in the cave. Scarlet began to panic. There's no way Kestrel could have killed all the SkyWings she brought with her by herself. And now she had no one here to protect her.

Fighting off more than one dragon would not be ideal for Scarlet in the weakened state she was in. That RainWing's venom had affected her more than she thought it would, not even including the melted portion of her face.

Suddenly, a SkyWing covered in blood emerged from the shadows. It is none of Scarlet's allies whom she flew all this way south with.

"Kestrel!" the queen hissed.

Even though she knew she was not at full strength, she took on a defensive posture. She's not about to show weakness in the face of her enemy.

"Yes," said Kestrel. "But not only me. I didn't kill all your soldiers without a little help. I've found myself a new friend after your worthless daughter murdered Webs!"

Scarlet nearly felt her crippled jaw hit the floor when Kestrel's "friend" she spoke of appeared from the tunnel to the right.

"HAWK?!" Scarlet roared. "You betrayed your family and kingdom to join _her_?!"

"Yes," he said. "And my name is not Hawk any longer. You will address me by the new name Kestrel gave me, Drakon, or you will not call me anything."

"I raised you better than this! You will renounce your loyalty to this traitor, kill her, and return home with me this instant! I am your mother!"

"You are nothing to me anymore," Drakon spat. "It sickens me to know you and I share the same bloodline. Kestrel has told me everything you did before I was born, and what really goes on in your arena. I want nothing more to do with you. Kestrel will be more of a mother to me than you ever have. You're no better than Tourmaline. You never cared about me. I was just another weapon in your arsenal, like Peril."

"Peril has escaped! She no longer has any affiliation with me!"

"Then she is smart, to have betrayed you," said Kestrel. "Drakon, Peril, and I have made the right choice, and we hope other dragons do as well."

"Not that it will matter anymore," Drakon continued. "You will not leave this cave, Scarlet."

Scarlet was offended.

"How dare you not refer to me as your mother and your queen?!"

"You are neither to me anymore! Did you not hear me say that?!"

"She's an old hag," Kestrel scoffed. "Even if she didn't lose half her face to RainWing venom, she still wouldn't hear right. Her kingdom would be better off if they died and had to find a new queen. I'd take up the throne myself if I could. You and I would change many things in the Sky Kingdom Drakon, I assure you that."

"Neither of you will live to accomplish any of that!" Scarlet hissed. She was about to go on the attack, but Kestrel and Drakon jumped out of the way and she ended up crashing face-first into the rocky ground. She screamed in agony and begins grasping at her melted face, which was still sensitive to even the most gentle touch. "You two will pay for that with your lives!" she declared. "You should not have assumed I didn't come with backup! I knew something would happen to the soldiers you killed so I had another _dozen_ hang back outside the cave in case of me needing reinforcements."

"She what?" Drakon gasped.

"Get in here now!"

Before Kestrel and Drakon could flee, another dozen SkyWings rushed into the cave.

"Go Drakon!" Kestrel ordered. "You know the escape plan I made up with you."

"What about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm not done cutting SkyWing throats."

"That's Tourmaline's blade!" Scarlet nearly toppled over sideways in shock. "How dare you arm yourself with royalty's weapons?"

"It's done good at cutting your soldiers' throats," Kestrel said fearlessly. "I think it'll look nice lodged in your forehead, Scarlet, don't you all agree?"

The twelve reinforcements looked at Scarlet, all thinking the same thing.

And their queen knew what that thought they're sharing is.

"Tear her limb-from-limb," Scarlet said so calmly it was almost unnatural.

"No! Kestrel!" Drakon screamed.

Kestrel snapped. "I told you to get out out of here damn it!"

"I won't let you fight alone! I'll never forgive myself if I could have made all the difference and saved you."

"Fine. But if things get hairy, I want you to get out of here no matter what happens to me. Do you understand?"

Drakon nodded. "Let's kill them _all_."

"It'll take a miracle for you to accomplish such a thing," the largest SkyWing, besides Scarlet of course, growled. "You may have killed those fools, but we are her majesty's best soldiers. I could rip both of your heads off myself before you see it coming!"

A silver glare flashed through the cave. Only a second later, a SkyWing's head detached from its neck and dropped to the floor with a thud.

It was the very one who was just bragging about how he could do just that by himself.

"You were saying?" Kestrel scoffed, still brandishing Tourmaline's sword that was now dripping with that SkyWing's blood as well. She disrespectfully kicked the head over to the other SkyWings, who, except for Scarlet, glared at it, horrified. He was the best fighter of them all and he was taken down by a blow he didn't even see coming! "How many of you must I cut the heads off of before you learn? Drakon and I aren't going _anywhere_ ," she growled. "You'll all die just like the rest who have tried if you come anywhere near us."

"Your majesty, we must reconsider this!"

"Shut up!" Scarlet cuffed her across the head. "They can't kill us all. They're just two dragons who haven't learned actual fighting techniques. They'll run out of energy soon."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Drakon threatened. He flexes his talons as if he's inviting them to attack. "Let's see how good all of you are at fighting!"

Another of the soldiers had enough. "I'll shut you up you brat," she said. "You'll regret ever betraying your mot—"

Her head detached from her neck before she could finish the sentence or strike at Drakon. She fell over backwards, her blood spraying her queen and fellow soldiers, now only ten strong. Before they could move, Kestrel dispatches another with a sharp stone; it pierced through the SkyWing's chest without any trouble and he drops like a log.

"Three down, nine to go and you aren't even putting up a fight!" Kestrel taunted, but did not smile. "What kind of soldiers are you?! Three of you are dead and haven't even put up a fight yet! I ain't even broke a sweat!"

Another male SkyWing lunged through the air at Kestrel, who purposefully fell down on her back and allowed him to tower over her. He raised up his talons threateningly.

"Any last words, traitor?" he whispered, as he prepares to strike his fatal blow.

"I hope you don't need your stomach!" Kestrel shouted.

He was confused. "Excuse me?"

The next thing he knew, there was a stabbing pain coming from his belly which he had foolishly left exposed to Kestrel without giving it a second thought. A slashing followed, then he felt completely hollow on the inside where that slashing occurred as Kestrel stands up. Two of his fellow soldiers were throwing up where they stood when they realized what Kestrel had done.

Kestrel only shrugged nonchalantly.

"I warned him he'd be without his stomach," she said as if nothing had happened.

Scarlet didn't remember her being so unphased by this much bloodshed. "I've had a lot more training in combat techniques than you thought, Scarlet. If you really insist on seeing this pointless loss of life to the end, so be it. Drakon and I will not let one of you see the outside of this cave again."

"You've only been lucky so far!" Scarlet declared. "Attack them at once! No more of this single combat nonsense!"

The eight surviving soldiers roared as they flew across the cave at Kestrel and Drakon. The first did not get very far before her head and wings detach from her body in every direction; nor does the second before he finds himself impaled on the sword that was Tourmaline's.

"You're making this way too easy," Kestrel said. "You should know the fighting techniques I'm using. Scarlet should've trained you in them in case you're ever caught in a situation like this where you're outnumbered vastly."

"Kill her! Rip out her eyes! Make them both pay for this!"

"Now Drakon!"

Drakon threw a sharpened stone through the air at Scarlet. She attempted to dodge the projectile but was not successful. The sound of the SkyWing queen's scream of agony reached the ears of her soldiers, and they ceased their attacking to see that she had been injured. She was lucky the stone did not hit her any higher, for it would have meant instant death, but Scarlet was still bleeding heavily from a neck wound.

"NO! Don't touch it!" Queen Scarlet ordered desperately. "You want to watch your queen bleed out before I can have any help?!"

"But we have no healers with us!"

"Stupid! There is two of them we left back at the lake!"

"What do we do?" another soldier asked.

"Retreat!" Scarlet commanded. They began to fly away without her. "You fools! I cannot carry myself to the lake with this injury! Get back here and carry me!"

"You will not leave!" Drakon declared, taking the sword from Kestrel and tossing it at his ex-mother. It made a hissing sound as it soared through the air. Then there was a thud as it pierces flesh.

"No!" Kestrel gasped.

She cannot believe it. One of Scarlet's soldiers had intercepted the blade at the last second. He drops over dead, but his queen was still alive and now being helped by her seven soldiers who still remained.

"You have not fought us for the last time…" Scarlet whispered painfully. "Know this, Kestrel and my son, you two will not be so lucky the next time. I will overwhelm you two with my soldiers the next time we fight…" She looks to the seven who remain. "Get me out of here," she demands.

Kestrel was breathing heavily.

"You put up a hell of a fight, kid," she whispered. "You were really brave, trying to kill your own mother like that."

"She's not my mother anymore," Drakon reminded her. "You are the closest thing to a mother I have right now." He paused. "But what will we do when she returns? Scarlet never goes back on a promise like that. She will return when she has recovered from her injuries, and she will not bring a small unit of soldiers next time."

"She won't find you and I here either. You and I are leaving now, when we are sure they have left."

"But where can we go?"

"Jade Mountain. The SkyWings would never look for dragons like us there. Scarlet would never imagine a dragon like me living among the peaceful dragons of Jade Mountain. You might as well call them monks. They never leave the mountain and never fight."

"But will they accept us?" Drakon asked. "We have too much knowledge of fighting."

"They accept all good dragons who are in need. We will be no different."

"When do we leave?"

"First thing in the morning. We must rest…and take a bath. Those monks won't accept dragons covered in blood, even if it is the result of fighting for a good cause."

Suddenly, a look of horror replaced the smile on Drakon's face.

"Kestrel! You're hurt!"

"Let it go. It's just a scratch," she said. "I've taken worse beatings from fights with dragons when I fought for your mother in the war. This is nothing."

Kestrel, however, took note of how much the talon scratches were bleeding. She didn't even know when she was struck, but judging by how deeply she'd been cut on her chest, it must have been from a dragon wearing metal talons.

"Maybe you…should get some moss…" Kestrel said groggily. "I feel light he…aded…"

"KESTREL!"

Drakon screamed when she suddenly fell over on her side.

"Just…get…moss. Stop the bleeding. I'll be fine…till you get back."

"I'll hurry! I'll hurry!" Drakon said rapidly. "Don't worry, Kestrel! I'll be right back!"

Drakon just hoped he didn't collect enough moss too late. It's the cold season, so he'll have to dig it up from where it's hidden under all the snow.

But what if it was too late to stop Kestrel's bleeding by then?


	6. Chapter 5: Tension in the Mountains

**Chapter 5:  
Tension in the Mountains**

"A few hours my tail, Clay!" Glory seethed, her scales changing from their usual color to a fiery red that told her friends she was beyond furious. "It took us a half a day just to get to the top of these mountains!"

"So I exaggerated a little…" Clay whispered.

"A little?! You were way off! You said we could fly 900 miles in a few hours! You didn't say it'd take half a day just to get two-thirds of the way!"

"I didn't want you to be angry…"

"ANGRY?! I would have been happier if you told me the truth Clay!"

"Alright alright!" Clay said, hiding behind Peril. "I'm sorry okay? I didn't think it would hurt…"

"You thought wrong!"

Peril puffed up her chest. She's not about to let someone treat Clay like this, especially not one of his friends.

"That's enough, Glory!" she hissed. "You don't need to be treating a friend like this. Clay's kept you all alive this long hasn't he?"

"Yeah but…He can't just lie to us and say we'll arrive at our destination in a few hours when it really takes a few days." Glory's color began returning to its normal blue hue, but it was still showing some signs of red here and there. "We'd just better get there before it gets dark, Clay," she added. "We've been at this for nearly four days."

"We will. I promise this time. Then you can all sleep as much as you want."

"That isn't going to be another lie, is it?" Glory asked, not hiding her usual sarcastic tone. She flew on ahead to apparently speak with Sunny and Starflight. However, Tsunami and Peril stayed by Clay's side. They could tell he was really hurt by Glory's words.

"I don't think she meant that," Tsunami said. "She's just…"

"Annoyed. I know. I shouldn't have lied to her. Some BigWing I am…"

"A _what_?" Peril asked.

"BigWing," said Tsunami. "He was the first of us to hatch on the brightest night. Being a BigWing is like being the big brother in a brood of dragonets."

"I wish I could have been a BigWing," Peril said glumly. "But Scarlet ruined any chance of that."

Clay briefly rubbed his muzzle against Peril's face. The heat from her firecales bothered him less with each time he touched her. It's like his fire-resistant scales were getting more adapted to the intense heat firescales gave off. Even Starflight didn't understand why this is though; all the more reason to get back to the mountain and read more of the scrolls, he'd said much to Tsunami and Glory's annoyance. They had no problem with reading and learning things, but Starflight's obsession with it could drive them over the edge sometimes.

"You'd make a great mother one day," said Clay. "That's all that matters now. We can't go back and change the past."

"Clay!" Tsunami whispered harshly.

Now Clay realized his mistake. He shouldn't have mentioned being a mother to Peril. She can never mate with Clay nor any other dragon, for it could kill them. Only so much of a dragon can be fire-resistant.

"Peril, I—"

"You're what? Sorry?"

Clay looked down to his talons. He felt terrible now.

"You knew that's one thing you shouldn't ever say to me and yet you did!"

"I didn't meant to, Peril! Honest! I-I wasn't thinking."

"I can tell!" Peril huffed. "All you males are the same. You don't think before you speak." She turned around. "You can come find me later. I want to be alone…"

"Peril! I'm sorry!"

"Shut it Clay!" she snapped back at him. "I don't want to hear anything out of you right now!"

Peril disappeared into the woods.

Clay looked down at his feet again. Not only did he know how badly he messed up now, but he also felt like his heart had been ripped out. He'd never wanted to upset Peril like this. But still, she was right. He should have thought that response through before he said anything. Now he'd really messed up and he'd upset Peril. This wasn't the sort of mistake any dragon in Peril's situation could easily forgive and Clay knew it.

Sunny approached Clay, when the others chose to keep their distance.

"Clay," she whispered. "Go to her. I know she said she didn't want to hear from you, but she's testing you. She wants to see how caring you really are. The right thing to do would be finding her quickly. If you take too long, it would only lead her to believe you don't care."

Now was when the others voice their thoughts.

"She's right," said Tsunami. "Go after her."

"Don't let her get away," Starflight added. "She may not have said it, but she'd want you to come after her. It's like Sunny said. Going after Peril would show her that you care more than just waiting for her to return ever could."

Glory spoke up too, in a tone that shocked Clay. She had never sounded so caring before.

"They're all right," she whispered softly. "Go after her Clay. Before it's too late to make things right with her."

"We'll all be here when you and Peril come back," Sunny added.

"Now go," Tsunami said urgently. "You don't have much time to convince Peril you care. Who knows where she is going. She could get lost in these mountains…and that may be what she wants to happen, if you don't go after her soon."

Without saying anything, Clay flew off to where his aching heart told him Peril had gone. He also followed where her footsteps had scorched the ground until they disappeared, telling Clay she must have taken flight; still, her wingbeats had scorched the trees around the path she took. Clay knew it would be easy to track Peril, considering everything she gets close to burns and all that, but he had chosen not to say anything about that feeling to his friends. He didn't want to waste time debating that matter with them, when every second Peril likely didn't see him looking for her was a second she could be coming to believe he didn't care.

"Peril!" Clay cried. "Where are you? I'm sorry!"

No answer.

"Peril! Please! I didn't meant to say that!"

Still nothing. This silence only made Clay's heart ache more.

Finally, he screamed: "PERIL! Please answer me! I'm sorry…" Clay's voice cracked. "I'm sorry…Maybe you don't deserve a dragon like me after all. I don't even know how to be sympathetic. I would make a terrible husband."

A tree branch snapped before Clay smelled smoke.

Clay's head perked up.

"Peril?" he said weakly. "You out there? I'm sorry!"

Peril did not reveal herself from where she was hiding in the forest, behind a boulder that will not burn from her touch. She's heard everything Clay's said, but a part of her still wasn't convinced that he's sorry. Clay's words really did break her heart. How could he have said that so thoughtlessly?

"I'm a failure!" Clay sobbed. Peril noticed his tears. "I don't deserve you in my life Peril…"

This tugged at Peril's heartstrings, but she's not quite sure if now is the right time to reveal she was still here and had heard everything he's said so far. While she knows it is cruel, she wanted Clay to learn a lesson as to how he should treat a girl like her. Peril can't fault him though; he's never had any parents to teach him how to be courteous of girls, and she doubted the guardians he's talked about ever thought to raise Clay and his friends as if they were their own children.

Clay sat down at the edge of the lake, not hiding how miserable he felt. Peril can still see that he was crying. It broke her heart to see the dragon she loved so much like this, but at the same time, she still wanted to teach him a lesson. She felt so conflicted by all this.

"Peril! Please…I'm telling you, I'm sorry for what I said. I know I messed up!"

 _I know you are, Clay_ , she thought. She's crying even more now. _But you need to experience this…even if it's breaking my heart too._

"Maybe my friends don't deserve someone like me, either," she heard Clay say. "Maybe I should just leave. They could find their way back to the mountain entrance themselves…They might be better off without me."

Peril couldn't take it anymore.

"No!" She flew out from her hiding spot. "Don't leave your friends."

Clay immediately jumped up on all fours.

"Peril?!" he exclaimed.

"Your friends would be lost without you," she panted. "Like you said before. You're like a big brother to them all." Peril paused. "And Clay…I forgive you. You really would have abandoned everything you've ever known to prove yourself to me?"

Clay nodded weakly.

His throat hurt so much from calling for Peril that he can barely speak.

Peril felt her tears sizzling against her firescales again.

"Oh Clay," she chuckled weakly. "You really are the male meant for me." She paused again. "I may have overreacted a little…"

"No," Clay raspsed. "I was a fool to say what I did. I couldn't have blamed you over leaving me for being so thoughtless. I needed to be taught a lesson in how to treat someone like you…how to treat a female."

Peril smiled, rubbing her snout against Clay's. "Hey hey," she said softly. "I already forgave you. You quickly came looking for me. A lot faster than any other male I've had the displeasure of knowing in the Sky Kingdom would have in this scenario. They do not respect us girls in the Sky Kingdom."

Clay embraced Peril in a hug that made her feel butterflies.

"I'm really sorry for saying that," he repeated. "It was stupid of me."

Peril stopped herself from saying "Yeah, it was".

It would be too soon to joke that like.

Instead, she said, "Come on, Clay. Let's get back to the others. We shouldn't worry them too much."

* * *

"You found her!" Sunny squealed with delight.

They all rushed to greet Clay and Peril as they return, walking side-by-side with Clay's tail holding Peril's.

"I found him," Peril said with a smile and laughed. "But now Clay needs to find his voice."

"What?" Sunny said.

"He lost it yelling for me in the forest."

Clay rasped, "Let us get back to our journey. We still have quite the way to go." He smiled at Glory. "And I promised somebody we'd be there before dark."

"Eh," Glory said sheepishly. "If we take a little longer to get there, it's alright with me. After all, what's wrong with enjoying this kind of scenario a little longer? This is my kind of habitat according to all those scrolls we read under the mountain. My tribe exists in a forest kinda like this…but not in the mountains."

"Maybe you'll get to see it one day," Peril interrupted, "after we take up General Maelstrom's invitation to visit the Kingdom of the Sea."

"She's right. We promised we'd stop for a visit after we find our guardians," said Starflight. "We can't go back on a promise."

"And it's my family. I wouldn't miss a chance to finally meet them." Tsunami looked to Peril. "We were taken by allies of the Talons of Peace, the guardians we told you about, before we hatched, in order to make sure the dragonet prophecy is fulfilled. Then we were captured by Scarlet and stuck in her prison for four years after that. None of us have ever known our families."

"Then we're more alike than I thought," Peril whispered. "I've never really known my mother, and I don't have a clue who my father could be."

Tsunami continued, "And our lives with the guardians wasn't always easy. A NightWing called Morrowseer wanted to kill Glory only because a RainWing isn't part of the dragonet prophecy."

Peril gasped. "What?"

"The dragonet prophecy calls for a MudWing, SeaWing, NightWing, SandWing, and SkyWing," Glory added. "That scumbag Morrowseer wanted me dead just because I wasn't a SkyWing. If I'd known how to use my venom then, I would've used it on him! He'll die one day, I promise you that…nobody gets away with trying to kill this RainWing! Bastard…Morrowseer doesn't even fit into the Talons of Peace if he resorts to murdering a dragonet over some stupid prophecy!"

"We'd show him," Tsunami snarled. "We've got our SkyWing right here!"

Clay sighed. "But Peril wasn't born on the same night we were."

"Huh?"

"I was born a year before any of you," Peril explained.

"You're still a SkyWing. That's good enough for us. You can fulfill Morrowseer's stupid prophecy as much as any other good SkyWing."

"And you're right," Peril whispered.

"About what?" they all asked.

"This Morrowseer does sound like a bastard. Maybe I'll deal with him myself if you ever meet up with him again."

* * *

Glory made an excited call.

"I see it! I see it! The cave's entrance!"

"That's a lot of blood…" Starflight whimpered.

The dragonets' hearts began racing.

"I hope Kestrel and Webs are alright," Sunny said.

"Then let's get down there already," Tsunami said. "If they did get into trouble, we won't be of any help to them here."

"Come on!" Starflight called.

The five dragons dove down from above, reaching the bloodstained ground in a mere minute.

"I'll go in first," Peril said. "If whoever did this is still in the cave, they won't last long with me."

"Be careful," Clay whispered.

"It's whoever did this that should be careful," she muttered.

And with that, Peril disappeared into the cave.

She was immediately disturbed by the sight of so many dead SkyWings, at least five of them. They had all been decapitated.

"There are bodies in here! SkyWings!"

"What?!" Clay gasped.

"I don't think the SkyWings got the better end of this battle, though. They all lost their heads. You can all come in, it should be safe."

"Did you find Kestrel and Webs yet?" Sunny asked.

"No. Just these bodies. But I've only just began exploring anyway. We need to keep going. There's a trail of blood this way."

"You think Kestrel and Webs could have went this way?"

"Yes. I don't see how their attackers could have made it any further than here."

Halfway down the corridor, the six dragons found more SkyWing bodies.

They were all dead, too.

"Come on, Kestrel," whispered Clay. "Where are you and Webs?"

"Over here…" a weak voice said.

Clay and his friends were horrified when they see Kestrel, instead with a SkyWing they don't even know and not Webs.

"What happened here?"

"Scarlet. She sent SkyWings after Kestrel," the SkyWing stranger said. "She and I fought them off."

"Where is Webs?" Tsunami demanded. "And who are you?"

"I am Drakon. I _was_ Scarlet's son, Hawk. But Kestrel convinced me to leave her after…"

"I'll tell them, Drakon," Kestrel whispered. She survived her injury, but she's still exhausted from all the blood she lost. A makeshift bandage crafted from moss stopped her bleeding, but Kestrel still needed proper medical attention. "They need to hear it from me." She paused to catch her breath. "Scarlet's daughter Tourmaline attacked us. Webs…" Kestrel began to sob already. "Webs took an attack for me…he's gone. Then Drakon and I killed her, and all these SkyWings you saw that Scarlet brought with her."

"Oh, Webs," Sunny cried.

"And those bastards with Scarlet were disrespectful enough to dig up Webs' grave!" Kestrel seethed. "Drakon and I had to bury him again just before you arrived!"

"If only we could kill the rest of them…" Drakon muttered. "I won't even consider Scarlet my mother anymore. She's dead to me. I won't go back to the Sky Kingdom while she's alive, if I do even."

"Where will you go then?" Starflight asked, as he embraces Sunny to console her. She'd really liked Webs. He was always nice to them all.

"Jade Mountain. Kestrel would have taken me there days ago, but she's been too weak to fly. I don't know anything about healing. I couldn't find any healers in the area…"

Clay's breathing relaxed a little.

He remembered a female dragon they passed on the way here. She was camped out at the bottom of the mountain, going on about herbal treatment and such.

"We passed a healer on the way here!" Clay exclaimed. "She's a SandWing."

"But how are we going to get Kestrel there?" Drakon asked. "She can't even fly or walk. She lost too much blood before I found moss to cover her wound!"

"We'll all carry her," said Starflight. "It's all we can do."

"You're crazy," Tsunami said.

Starflight frowned at her.

"I hope you have a better idea, cause I'd like to hear it!" Tsunami continued.

"Will you just let me finish?" Starflight still glared at her. "As I was saying. It is crazy, yes, but it might just work."

"Wait, wait!" Clay and Peril said together.

"What?" the others asked at once.

"We can't just go into this blindly," Clay took over. "There has to be some planning done or else we could end up doing more harm to Kestrel than good. So all of you, sit down and let's talk about this. For Kestrel's sake, we can't afford to make any mistakes."


	7. Chapter 6: SkyWing Reunion

**Author's note** **:** It was tough to use it considering what happened to Chester Bennington and I've been a Linkin Park fan for a while, but "One More Light" by Linkin Park felt like the appropriate song to use as the "scavenger song" that Sunny remembered from reading she did in the cave, and wanted to sing for Webs. I couldn't think of another that would have felt more fitting out of all the music I've listened to.

* * *

 **Chapter 6:  
SkyWing Reunion**

"She needs to stop moving so much!" the SandWing healer known as Tawny said. "I can't stitch up her wound if she thrashing about like this!"

"You'd be thrashing like an idiot too if you had a SandWing sewing up your shoulder with cactus thorns!" Kestrel screamed in pain. "DAMN IT! JUST GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY!"

"If you'd keep still I could you stubborn SkyWing!" Tawny looked to the younger dragons, besides Peril for she knew about her firescales. "Can some of you hold her down please? I can't work if she keeps thrashing like this!"

In the end it took all five of the dragonets of destiny to hold Kestrel down long enough for Tawny to fishing sewing up the gash in her shoulder.

Kestrel, of course, screamed the entire time.

When it was all said and done, Clay and his friends got off Kestrel.

She sat up.

"I need to retire from this shit," Kestrel muttered. "I'm getting too old for this."

"Kestrel," Clay whispered.

"What do you want mudbrain?"

Clay ignored her insult.

He'd learned to expect them from Kestrel when they all lived under the mountain together.

"There is someone who came a long way with us to meet you," he said.

"Who would want to meet me? I'm just a washed up old SkyWing with no life."

Peril stepped forward.

"I-It can't be!" Kestrel stammered.

"It is," Peril said. "I'm the daughter you had to leave in the Sky Kingdom eight years ago."

"I thought you were dead! Scarlet didn't kill you?"

"I now wish she had." Peril paused. "The things she used me for were terrible. It sickens me to know how much dragons' blood I've spilled for her entertainment. I've done unforgivable things in Scarlet's arena. And all these years, she'd led me to believe you were either dead or had never wanted me."

"She's a liar!" Kestrel snapped. "I tried to take you with me after Scarlet forced me to kill your brother. Scarlet had said she would spare us if I did it, then she tried to kill us anyway. But I couldn't carry you…your touch was like lava. I had to leave you…"

Peril began to cry.

"Mother…Oh, I wish I could hug you. But my firescales…"

"I can't believe it. My daughter's been alive all these years!"

Clay and his friends couldn't believe it either.

Kestrel was really crying!

But then again, so were they.

They were so happy for Peril and Kestrel.

For eight years, they had thought the other was dead, and now they're together again.

The dragonets of destiny could only hope nothing ever separates them from each other again.

Now was when Peril noticed Drakon.

"You!" she hissed. "What is Hawk doing here?! He's Scarlet's son!"

"Not anymore," said Drakon. "When Scarlet attacked us, I told her I'm not her son anymore, and she is dead to me. I've went as far as to change my name. Do not ever call me Prince Hawk again. I am just Drakon. If anyone here is my mother, I'd rather it be Kestrel than Scarlet."

Peril blinked. "So, you've adopted him…?"

A slight smile formed on Kestrel's face.

"You could say that."

Peril smiled at Drakon.

"Then I'm glad to have you as my unofficial brother." _Since Scarlet robbed me of my actual brother,_ she thought spitefully.

 _Should I really insist on being a jerk to these dragonets?_ Kestrel thought. _They escaped Scarlet's arena and still wanted to come find me, just to bring my lost daughter back to me. I owe them a lot now._

She looked at Clay and his friends.

"Where are all of you heading after this?" she asked.

"The Kingdom of the Sea," said Sunny. "On the other side of the mountain at Diamond Spray River, we had a run in with some of Tsunami's family and other SeaWings. They requested we bring Tsunami to their kingdom sometime soon."

"But we told them we had to find our guardians first," Starflight added.

"Very well. Drakon and I will come with you." Kestrel's expression then became very serious. "But before we leave, we need to visit Webs' grave one last time."

* * *

The dragonets of destiny and Kestrel were in tears as they stand in a circle around Webs' grave.

 _Somebody should say a few words for him,_ Sunny thought sadly.

"Webs," she whispered. "You, Kestrel, and Dune were always there for us when we were young. You all did so much for us. I just wish we could've been there for you in the end. We owe the three of you so much. You didn't have to raise us, but you did anyway." She paused to wipe away tears. "We'll miss you, Webs." Then she looked up at the sky. "You too, Dune."

Tsunami laid down before Webs' grave.

"Goodbye, Webs…You were like a father to me. You were the only SeaWing I'd known all the way under this mountain. I wish I could have told you what you really meant to me, Webs…"

Glory surprised her friends by lying down at Tsunami's side next.

"Tsunami's feelings are mutual, Webs. You were like a dad to me. To all of us." She chuckled weakly. "You tried to teach us so much with all dusty old scrolls in the cave's library. We never got the chance to thank you for being a teacher and a dad to us…"

Clay and Starflight only had one thing to say, and they say it together, as if they had talked it over:

"A part of my heart will always feel like it is missing without you in my life, Webs. I'm sorry I couldn't have been there for you in the end, when you were there for us for the first three years of our lives."

"Don't you think we should do something more for Webs?" Sunny asked.

Glory cocked her head.

"Like what?"

"A song maybe? I know a few from rummaging through the library under the mountain. I think they're Scavenger songs that were translated into our tongue, but there was still meaning in the words."

"I don't know, Sunny…singing scavenger music for a dragon doesn't seem right."

"Just hear me out, guys. Please."

The SandWing-NightWing hybrid began to sing.

The others couldn't believe how beautiful her voice is. Those who had known her for a while wondered why Sunny hadn't ever sang before. It also amazed them that Sunny managed to remember the words all these years.

 _Should've stayed; were there signs I ignored?_

 _Can I help you not to hurt anymore?_

 _We saw brilliance when the world was asleep_

 _There are things that we can have but can't keep_

 _If they say, "Who cares if one more light goes out,_

 _in the sky of a million stars?"_

 _It flickers, flickers._

 _Who cares when someone's time runs out,_

 _if a moment is all we are?_

 _We're quicker, quicker._

 _Who cares if one more light goes out?_

 _Well, I do._

 _The reminders pull the floor from your feet_

 _In the kitchen, one more chair than you need_

 _And you're angry, and you should be; it's not fair_

 _Just 'cause you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there_

 _If they say, "Who cares if one more light goes out,_

 _in the sky of a million stars?"_

 _It flickers, flickers._

 _Who cares when someone's time runs out,_

 _if a moment is all we are?_

 _We're quicker, quicker._

 _Who cares if one more light goes out?_

 _Well, I do._

"Well, I do," Sunny whispered.

Before the little SandWing-NightWing hybrid could wipe her tears away, she found herself surrounded by her fellow dragonets of destiny.

Clay slowly lifted Sunny up so she was sitting on his shoulders.

Normally Sunny hated being reminded of how she's so much smaller than the rest, despite being born at the same moment they were, but she didn't mind being lifted up by Clay onto his shoulders this time.

Kestrel hated to interrupt this moment between them, but she knew she must do it.

"Um," said Kestrel. "Shouldn't we be getting on our way to the Kingdom of the Sea? Since, you know, you said they're expecting all of you and everything."

"Oh." Tsunami groaned. "She's right."

"But they aren't expecting Kestrel or Drakon," Starflight pointed out. "Just us and Peril."

Tsunami moved away from her friends.

"I hope my mother takes kindly to so many SkyWings."

"Why wouldn't she?" Peril asked. "The SeaWings aren't allied with any one tribe, aren't they. Queen Coral shouldn't have any problem with a few SkyWings who have no allegiance to Scarlet."

"I hope." Drakon gulped nervously. "I don't want to die over a misunderstanding…"

"I'll explain the situation to my mother. She won't harm any of you if she knows you're as much an enemy of Scarlet as my friends and I all are."

Starflight rudely interrupted.

"Wait, wait, wait. Isn't the Kingdom of the Sea entirely _underwater_? How do you expect Clay, Sunny, Glory, Kestrel, Peril, Drakon, and me to get to Queen Coral's palace if it's somewhere down in the ocean?"

"Have you really forgotten all those scrolls you read constantly? They talked about how there's a Summer Palace for non-SeaWing guests."

"So you wouldn't stay with us?" Peril asked. "You're a SeaWing."

"I'd never leave any of you. Even if it means not living in the same part of the palace as my mother and siblings, then so be it. I've known you all longer than I've known my actual family. You're all like brothers and sisters to me." She has another secret thought when she looks at Clay: _Some of you are a little more than that. But I don't think Clay even knows that I love him too._ Tsunami hadn't forgotten when Clay declared his love of her back in the arena, when she'd almost had to fight Peril to the death.

"But Tsunami!" Sunny chirped. "This is your family. We'd understand if you want to spend some time with them. We'll wait for you in the Summer Palace for when you want to spend time with us again. None of us would take it personally if you chose your actual family over us. You've never had the chance to get to know them. Webs took you away before you hatched."

 _Maybe she's right_. "I guess so. It's just, I don't like being away from my friends. Even if it'd be to spend quality time with my family that I never had before, my heart would still tell me it's not entirely the right thing to do."

"We won't fault you for being with your family," Clay said. "It'd just be natural that you want to catch up on lost time with your mother and your siblings. Spend as much time as you want with them when we get to the Kingdom of the Sea. We'll still be in the Summer Palace when you want to spend time with us again."

Clay's words made Tsunami's heart flutter.

She'd secretly wanted to hear it from him to feel assured she would be doing the right thing by being away from them to catch up with a lot of last time.

It'd bothered her until now that she may not see Clay and the others for several days if she chose to spend time with her biological family.

"Thanks, Clay," Tsunami said. "But don't think I won't have all of you on my mind just because I'm with my actual family whenever it is we get to the Kingdom of the Sea."

"So how far is it from here to the Kingdom of the Sea anyway?" Peril asked.

"Well…"

"Oh please no!" Sunny exclaimed. "No more measuring, Tsunami! You already have us all thinking about how we flew 900 miles to get away from Scarlet's arena!"

With the exception of Kestrel and Drakon, who did not understand what was so funny about this, everyone started laughing.

"Alright. But still, we all need to know where we're going. None of us have been to the Kingdom of the Sea."

Starflight butted in again.

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"Sure…?"

"Let's just check out the map of Pyrrhia in the cavern's library."

Tsunami chuckled. "Okay smartass. I could've suggested that."

Starflight's wings droop. "Why didn't you then?"

"That was a little too far, Tsunami!" Sunny said.

Even though she's dwarfed by Starflight, she manages to comfortingly pat her boyfriend on the back.

Starflight smiled at her.

Tsunami realized how the little hybrid was right and immediately felt bad.

"You're right. I'm sorry for that, Starflight."

* * *

"Well, that's great!" Kestrel groaned. "The Kingdom of the Sea looks to be almost a thousand miles from here."

Glory lashed out sarcastically. "What, did you and Tsunami plan that out together?"

"No," she hissed. "Besides. How do you all expect me to handle that much flight when my injury hasn't even healed? I should have Drakon tell you how much blood I lost!"

"That's, um, not necessary," Clay interrupted. "We've seen your injury, so I think there isn't much left to our imaginations."

"I could always cauterize it," Peril suggested.

Kestrel shrunk back.

"No thanks. No offense daughter, but I don't want to watch my shoulder disintegrate."

 _Does even my own mother really have to talk about my firescales like that? As if I_ want _to harm anyone. I'm not some psychopath who enjoys dragons' suffering, just because Scarlet made me out to be one._

"Fine," Peril said instead. "Don't say I didn't offer though. It would've just been a quick tap to seal off your wound, but I understand. You can't trust your own daughter. It's not like I don't care for you or anything."

Kestrel shut her eyes tight.

She felt bad for talking to her daughter whom she hadn't seen for eight years that way.

"Do it," she whispered.

"Huh?"

"You heard me, daughter. Just do it. I'll probably bite through my tongue from the pain, but if it stops my bleeding for good…"

Peril came back.

"Just don't move, mother." As carefully as possible, she tapped her talon against Kestrel's wound after Drakon took off the makeshift bandage. "That's it. I'm finished."

Kestrel's eyes shot open.

"Did you even do anything? I barely felt any burning." But sure enough, she saw that her wound had been sealed by an intense heat. "How is that possible? I could barely tell you burned my wound!"

Peril shrugged. "I was just very careful. Simple as that."

Clay approached Kestrel.

"If you need to rest at any time during the flight to the Kingdom of the Sea, just speak up and we can descend."

"Over the ocean?!" Glory bursted out. "That's a grand idea! You might as well cut your own leg and bleed in the water to draw in sharks."

Tsunami hissed. "Nobody asked for sarcasm…"

Glory threw her front legs up in the air defensively.

"What? You know how I am by now! I'm the sarcastic chick of our little gang."

"You should also know I can't stand sarcasm after hearing four years of it from Scarlet. That hag's constant stream of sarcastic remarks made me want to rip out my eardrums."

"I'm probably lucky she had me drugged and propped up on that tree like some piece of art most of the time," Glory sighed. "I didn't have to listen to it."

"Yeah. If only we'd all been that lucky. Four years of Scarlet's sarcasm and watching dragons becoming piles of ash was my idea of Hell." Tsunami quickly added, "No offense, Peril."

"None taken."

"We should get going guys," Clay said. "If you're feeling up to it right now, Kestrel."

"Well I'm feeling about as good as I will be considering. Let's just get this flight over with. Maybe there are actual nurses in the Kingdom of the Sea, 'cause that Tawny didn't know what she was doing. I've seen Webs deal with injury better than she did!"

"I just want to make one thing clear," the MudWing continued. "I want three of us flying by Kestrel at all times in case something goes wrong. I don't want to lose anyone on this flight once we get beyond the coastline."


	8. Chapter 7: Battle of the Ice Kingdom

**Author's note:** This chapter was co-written by mikey1393drago after I'd joked to him "Yeah, I know. My writing of battle sequences have gotten rusty. This is the first battle sequence I've written in a story like like 5-6 years" (I'd say something along those lines anyway). So he re-wrote some moments of the battle sequence, cut some things from it, and added others.

That's about all that really needs to be said this time, that I wouldn't be saying in every author's note otherwise (mentioning that mikey1393drago is proofreading this story).

* * *

 **Chapter 7:  
Battle of the Ice Kingdom**

Princess Blister of the SandWings could not stand her sisters Blaze and Burn. Sure, Burn was eccentric in her own right, but Blaze was the worst of the two. She was a vain, ditzy dragon who could not battle with a damn, and worried so much about there being she-dragons that were younger and prettier than her. The soldiers she commanded did all the fighting and made their own decisions on the battlefield. How Blaze had earned the support from the majority of their fellow SandWings was beyond Blister's very understanding, when so few of their own kind supported her and Burn in comparison.

At least Burn loved to fight, Blister could at least respect her other sister for that much. What she could not stand about Burn however, was that she loves to kill for sport, not only when it was necessary. Blister believed she is the only one of her sisters with any kind of standards, Blaze was too lazy to fight her own battles, and Burn took her love of fighting a little too far.

Blaze, however, had probably never fought a battle in her life. Hell, it'd be a miracle if Blaze knew how to fight her way out of an empty dark cave, let alone against other dragons. She probably couldn't kill a damn dragonet. Blister strongly believed that Blaze was a failure for having lived three decades already and not accomplished anything in her life.

Blister had allied herself with the NightWings at the start of the War of SandWing Succession. There was no doubt Morrowseer and other massive NightWings like him were a force to be reckoned with. Furthermore, most NightWings could supposedly read other dragons' minds with ease without said dragons knowing it was happening.

Still, Blister had been given no choice but to strike a deal with Morrowseer. He would help Blister become the next SandWing queen only if she promised to help them destroy all the RainWings and give the NightWings a safer home in the Rainforest Kingdom when the war ended and she'd become the SandWing queen, in return for Morrowseer lending Blister the strength in numbers of the NightWings to assist her small SandWing army in the war.

Blister snarled.

"Where is that lump-headed NightWing?" she seethed to her subordinate SandWings. "I've given him my word that my army would help kill all the RainWings so those NightWings can have the Rainforest Kingdom to themselves, so why is he late? We can't discuss war plans without the leader of our allies!"

"You know NightWings, your majesty. They're slow and dumb. Besides it's not even dark yet. That over-sized lummox probably hasn't even gotten woken up yet, if he's like any other NightWing."

"Shush it," Blister hissed. "I hear him. There's no dragon other than me whose wings flap that loudly."

Blister herself was larger than Morrowseer, and that's saying something. Morrowseer was the largest dragon most on Pyrrhia have ever seen, and he was still smaller in stature than Blister was. It was no wonder Blister is also one of the few Pyrrhian dragons who didn't fear Morrowseer.

If the NightWing ever betrayed her, she'd just kill him with the venomous scorpion-like barb on the end of her tail before he even had time to study her intellect. Even if Morrowseer tried reading her mind, she didn't need to think to hard about using her barbed tail to dispatch him. He wouldn't see it coming either way if she did eventually need to do away with him.

"What took so long, Morrowseer?" Blister demanded.

"The weather," he growled. "You know we live on an island off the coast of Pyrrhia ever since my former homeland was destroyed. You're a giant among dragons like me. You try flying in a hurricane to reach a meeting on time, and you'll learn it is just not possible."

Blister yawned disrespectfully.

"Whatever. I didn't want to hear a sob story anyway. Let's just get on with this meeting." Morrowseer glared hatefully at her. How dare she disrespect him? Has she forgotten that he's the one whose tribe made up most of her army now. His NightWings outnumbered her SandWings three to one. "As you all already know, my sisters Blaze and Burn are also fighting in this war for our mother's throne. The truth you also all know is I'm the only one fit to be queen. Burn doesn't know when to stop cutting off dragons' heads and mounting them on her wall, and Blaze comes off to me as a vain, ditzy whore. Among other things. Blaze being SandWing queen would be the worst thing to happen to our kingdom since our mother's murder.

"That is why we are here today, in my chamber with only those of you I know I can always trust. I intend to assassinate Blaze very soon. She can't tell her SandWings from my SandWings. You will deliver a vial of my venom—" Blister was saying this as said venom dripped from her barbed tail into a diamond vial. It steamed as it filled up the vial. SandWing venom was very acidic, so any container it touched but this diamond vial would have melted in Blister's grasp. "—one of you will take the place of one of Blaze's cooks who are preparing a feast for her hatching day celebration that will take place tomorrow evening. The day she hatched will be the day she breathes her last," Blister concluded darkly.

"A question, your majesty?"

"Go ahead."

"How will you make sure Blaze drinks enough of your venom to kill her? She'll know if one of us just gives her a diamond vial full of a steaming liquid."

Blister slapped herself in the face.

Does he not realize how stupid he sounded?

"The assassin will pose as an assistant to her lead cook, as I said, and when he's got the perfect opportunity, preferably when the lead cook is not looking, he will mix my venom into any one thing they are cooking together. If he sneaks my venom into something sweet, Blaze will never taste it before she begins to choke to death. They won't be able to save her. As you should all know, SandWing Venom has no anti-venom. Even if there was, a victim of it would die before anti-venom can be used anyway. That's why I _love_ our venom so much. It's the perfect assassination tool."

 _You're not the only one with conspiracies brewing, Blister,_ Morrowseer thought. _Queen Battlewinner and I will rule over more than just the Rainforest Kingdom. You won't enjoy being SandWing queen for long, if Queen Battlewinner's plan is carried out without a hitch. Which it will. She's a genius and her plan is flawless. It'll even cure her of the curse that is her icescales. She'll finally get to leave that lava pool without fear of freezing alive and rule like a real queen._

"Why are you so silent, Morrowseer?" Blister questioned. She had a suspicious glare on her face. "You're never so quiet during debates. You haven't offered your opinions once. That is not like you."

"What is there to offer, your majesty?" Morrowseer said, but Blister did not like how she said "your majesty". There was no hint of respect in his tone. "Your plan is a flawless one."

 _That is not the Morrowseer I've known for years_ , Blister thought carefully, in case the NightWing was reading her mind. _He's up to something. What you don't know is, I planned for any possibility of so-called allies betraying me before you and I joined forces. You won't see it coming, mind reading or no mind reading. But for now, let's focus on dealing with Blaze. I'll deal with traitors when the time comes._

* * *

Burn glared at the gathering of SkyWings and MudWings in her private chamber from her throne.

Her fellow SandWings, the few that she could trust enough to let into this meeting, seemed oblivious to it, but Burn noticed the glaring issue about the SkyWings she'd called to this meeting.

"Where is Queen Scarlet?" she hissed. "You SkyWings did not tell me she would miss out on this crucial meeting."

"A lot has happened since your last visit to the Sky Kingdom. Her majesty's daughter Tourmaline was murdered, her son Hawk betrayed her to join the Talons of Peace in support of the dragonets of destiny, and her majesty has suffered a lot of serious injuries. She tried to say otherwise, but she is not in good enough health to leave the infirmary now. She fell right down when she tried getting out of the bed our healers insisted she rest on."

"Such a shame," Burn sighed. "This will not be as thrilling—" She had suddenly come to love using Scarlet's favorite word for some reason. "—meeting without your queen. But we'll have to get through this. My future on the Kingdom of Sand's throne depends on what we plan here. First of all, we must deal with the real threat to my dream. Blister. My sister will refuse to let anyone else be SandWing queen while she still breathes. That is why I have paid an assassin she would never suspect of being such. He's a NightWing called Deathbringer who serves no tribe but the one that pays him. Blister is allied with the NightWings, so it's the perfect plan. Morrowseer won't even be able to read his mind. Deathbringer, like all other NightWings, doesn't just have the gift of mind reading, they know how to prevent their minds from being read by other NightWings. They can think without revealing their thoughts to potential mind readers."

"What about your other sister? Blaze?"

"That vain dragon?" Burn laughed. "Oh please. She's not even a threat. Plus if I know my better sister, she's probably already got some sort of plan to make sure Blaze is out of the picture for good. I doubt we'll have to concern ourselves with her too much, if at all. Blaze will probably be dead before our plan to kill Blister is even ready to carry out!" Burn's head spins around to look at Queen Scarlet's general. He tapped his talons nervously on the floor when she glared at him. "I want you to give Scarlet a message for me. It is important so do not forget or you'll find yourself breathing your last breath by my talons alone. I do get carried away sometimes when I hunt down those who fail me." He gulped loudly. "Tell her that we are close to ending this war, that I will be queen before the week's end if everything goes as planned. If she asks what my plan is, just tell her Blister will be finding it hard to breathe very soon. And make sure you also tell her that I missed her at this meeting. Don't you forget any of what I just told you, if you care about returning to your family after this war is over.

"One other thing. It's Morrowseer. Blister has an allegiance with the NightWings. Morrowseer will be another target of our assassination plans. Without Blister and Morrowseer to lead them, their morale will be crushed and they'll all drop right out of this war faster than you can imagine."

 _You'll be the only one dropping out of this war, Burn,_ a female SandWing thought. _It's a shame you'll never figure out how Blister becomes aware of all of this. You should have really checked out all your 'honored guests' better, you fool. I'm no ally of yours. When you find yourself with Blister's stinger in your heart, you can thank me for your demise._

The other SandWings and SkyWings began shouting:

"All hail Burn!"

"Long live the new SandWing queen!"

The spy tried not to growl.

 _She won't ever get the pleasure of being the SandWing queen, morons. Blister will see to that once I've reported back to her with my news. And you'll never know_ _I was a spy for your greatest enemies in this war!_

* * *

"Could you hurry this portrait up, please Onyx?" Blaze asked kindly. "My hatching day's tomorrow and I want the celebration to be perfect."

Blaze was wearing a fancy fur coat made out of a mix of brown bear fur, and cotton around the neck. She'd had it specifically made for herself last month by a IceWing whose expertise was in designing such clothing.

Apparently she'd been learning the scavengers' language for several years and had translated many of their books into the language only dragons of Pyrrhia understood, and that was how she had become so talented with clothes designing. Blaze had been disappointed when she learned none of her fellow SandWings, or the IceWings whom they were sheltered by, said they didn't want her to ask that IceWing to design anything like her fur coat for them.

 _How can my aunt be thinking about her hatching day like this when her soldiers are out there losing their lives so she can be the SandWing Queen?_ Onyx thought.

Onyx had never forgotten that Blaze wasn't even there when Queen Oasis was murdered. When it happened, she'd probably had herself buried in expensive pillows and wearing jeweled earplugs to sleep well like she always did.

Onyx liked Blaze a lot better than her other two aunts—she'd never murdered anyone, for starters—but it was hard to deny how vain and lazy Blaze could be. Onyx had never met another dragon that threw her wealth away for expensive pillows, jeweled earplugs, other random trinkets, and even a few scavengers that do nothing to help her win this war.

She was still not sure what her aunt could use those three scavengers she'd bought before the war began for.

There's no way any scavengers could fight enemy dragons.

 _Then again one of them killed my aunts' mother,_ Onyx thought, _so maybe I shouldn't underestimate them too much._

"No offense aunty, but couldn't someone a little more artistic than me do this for you?" Onyx asked. "I don't really know what I'm doing."

Blaze smiled.

"Nonsense Onyx. You'll learn. Besides, aren't you happy to be helping your aunt this way and not in that war?"

"I guess," she whispered. "I just don't think this is any good."

Onyx put down the brush to look at the painting. It looked like Blaze, who was still lying on her bed amidst all her variously-colored pillows in a fashion that makes her seem more like a teenage dragon than one that should have three decades of experience and wanted to be the queen of her kingdom.

Onyx found her aunt's expression in the painting unsettling for something that would be hung up publicly in the stronghold, which was not really theirs to begin with.

They were fortunate Queen Glacier of the IceWings let them stay here and provided them with additional troops to fight the war, but with the condition that if Blaze did become the SandWing Queen, she will have to share her land in the Kingdom of Sand with the IceWings.

"I think it's done," Onyx said after a few more minutes.

"Grand!" Blaze exclaimed. "Let me see, dear."

Onyx spun the painting around for her aunt to see.

Blaze couldn't believe how great it looks.

"You really are a talented artist, Onyx. I told you you could do it. That piece of art shall hang up in my chamber as long as we live here in the Ice Kingdom. Then when I'm SandWing queen, I'll hang it up in my castle for everyone to see."

"Three moons…" Onyx muttered under her breath.

"What was that dear? No, I don't think the three moons are full yet."

For some reason, Blaze subsequently looked back at her rear, as if she had realized maybe that was the moon her niece had been talking about, and not the three moons in the sky over Pyrrhia.

Onyx quickly changed the subject. She didn't want to sit through her aunt going on about her rear and if it she thought it looked fine again.

"Is there something you want me to do to help the others?" _Please say yes. I don't want to do anymore arts and crafts…_ "Like helping the cook or something."

"No need. They've all got plenty of help. I just needed somebody who could help me with decorations and art. Can you believe nobody volunteered to help me with this?"

 _Oh help me…_ Onyx tried not to make a despaired whimper.

"I remember now! You have to help me decorate the dining hall for the celebration. I can't fathom why nobody would want to help me with that either. I'm they're future queen for crying out loud. They should give me more respect than they do."

"Blaze," someone behind them said.

 _What?_

It was none other than the IceWing queen, Glacier.

Blaze and Onyx bowed respectively.

"What brings you here, your majesty?" Blaze asked kindly.

"Trouble. Come quickly, both of you."

 _This had better not ruin my hatching day celebration. We're all working so hard on making it something nobody will ever forget._

* * *

"SandWings!" Glacier snarled. "And NightWings! They must be Blister's troops." She quickly got confirmation of that. "Blister! And Morrowseer?!"

"I thought Morrowseer was with the Talons of Peace?!" Blaze gasped. "What is he doing providing troops to my sister for this war?"

"Apparently he's not with the Talons of Peace anymore. I never did like that NightWing."

"What do we do?" Onyx asked.

"What we IceWings have been preparing for while you SandWings that are still here worried more about Blaze's hatching day."

"Humph!" Blaze snorted with offense. _You'll think twice after saying that, if I even help you with your hatching day celebration queen!_

"Worry about it later, Blaze! Your hatching day's not for a few days anyway!"

Blister and Morrowseer land before their army, all still hovering in midair.

"Oh, those fools!" Blister cackled. "They're standing on the top of Blaze's stronghold like they're waiting for us to attack. We could just knock down the tower and be through with them before they know what happend!"

"Death to Queen Glacier!" the soldiers chanted. "Death to Princess Blaze! All hail Queen Blister!"

"She's not even the SandWing queen yet!" Glacier seethed. "Those fools! If they attack, they won't have their queen. We have spent years preparing for this day, and they don't even know it."

"ATTACK!" Blister roared. "Leave none of their royalty alive!"

The first wave of SandWings and NightWings who flew towards the tower do not get very far. It happened so quickly that Blister and Morrowseer barely knew what happened to the soldiers, but all thirty of them are dead and broken in the snow in less than a minute, their bodies filled with spears of ice.

"That was your bright idea?" Morrowseer growled. "You just got an eighth of our army killed by one maneuver."

"Not so confident now, are we Blister?" Glacier howled from her position. "Try all you want, not enough of you will get through our defenses to win this battle."

"We'll just see," Blister hissed. "Every defensive line has a weakness. We just need to find it."

"Where are you going?" Morrowser snapped.

"To destroy their defensive line. It's too obvious to anyone with a brain how they killed thirty of our troops at once. Look at the ground. There are holes in the ice that would never occur naturally. They have built a system of traps for us, but without any dragons to operate them, we can get through with the greatest of ease." She looks to her SandWing troops. "You two, with me. The rest, wait here for my command."

"What do you suggest we do?" the chosen female asked as they fly in the opposite direction of Glacier's palace.

"There's bound to be a path that leads underground to where the IceWings operating those traps are hiding," Blister explained. "These IceWings are smart but not smart enough to make traps that function without controllers. Only SandWings and SkyWings know anything about that."

"There!" said the male SandWing. "That must be it."

* * *

"What are they doing now?" Blaze asked. "Those three are retreating but the rest of the army stayed?"

"Don't you realize?" Glacier hissed. "Blister has figured out how so many of her troops died at once. She's looking for the dragons manning our traps! And we have no way to warn them!"

"Where'd they go?!" Onyx gasped.

"They found their way into where my soldiers are working the traps. But Blister had better not attack without thinking we IceWings didn't plan for every possibility! We can fight the old-school way just as well!"

* * *

"Hey, IceWings!" Blister yelled.

The five IceWings spin around, sporting looks of horror

"No!" one of them said, then found himself with Blister on top of him. He feels the stab of her barbed tail as she pierces through his chest into his heart. He dies the instant he feels Blister's venom coursing through him, as her two soldiers rip the other IceWings to shreds before they have the chance to flee or fight back against their attackers. The cave had become a complete bloodbath in seconds.

"Why didn't you just stab them with your tail?" Blister griped.

"Where's the fun in that? That's how we always kill other dragons. It gets boring after a while."

"You two should've saved your energy to rip dragons apart on the battlefield, not down here. Pumping venom into their hearts would have sufficed." Blister wiped the blood from her scarred face. "And I didn't exactly want a bloodbath either, YOU IDIOTS!"

The two soldiers lowered their heads in shame, as if to apologize to Blister.

"You two had better be sorry about this," she hissed. "One of you will learn a lesson now."

In a split second, the female SandWing is dead, a hole punched in her chest where Blister had stabbed her with her barbed tail.

The dead SandWing soldier was foaming at the mouth due to how much venom Blister chose to pump into her.

"If you make a reckless decision like that again, I'll see to it you end up like your sister. Am I understood?"

"Yes, your majesty," he whispered, still bowing his head.

"Good. Now let's get out of here. There's a battle for us to win!"

* * *

Glacier looked down at her gathering troops, mostly IceWings but there were some SandWings too.

"We must fight the old-fashioned way!" Glacier declared. "Blister has killed the dragons I had working the traps. We're on our own now. But remember, Blister and her allies do now know what is waiting for them here. She thinks we are just sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered, but she will learn we've spent the past eight years training hard for this moment.

"I knew this would happen eventually, and I wanted all of you to be ready for it. Now, we must defend our kingdom against these intruders! Take no prisoners! And by the three moons, if you can kill Blister or Morrowseer, do it. That will crush their morale."

"But I can't fight!" Blaze exclaimed. She nervously pulled her full coat around her breast, apparently as if she thought that would shield it from a sharp projectile thrown by the enemy. "I don't know how! Onyx doesn't either…"

"Then get back in your stronghold and fluff your expensive pillows until this is over," Glacier said without any regret. "If you don't feel like you're a real warrior, then stay out of this battle. We'll be getting a whole lot of new land when this war is over anyway. I'll make sure you get to be queen. There will be too many future wars if Blister or Burn become the next SandWing queen."

"Come on, Onyx. We don't want to be out here."

Blaze disappeared with her niece back into the stronghold.

"At least she's the kind one. She may be the ditziest dragon I've ever met, but I wouldn't choose another of the SandWing sisters to be the new queen." Glacier turns back to the tundra that was about to become a battlefield. She would think more about the next SandWing queen later. There was a bigger issue for her to concern herself with now.

"You should just surrender now, Glacier!" Blister screeched. "Face it. Your army can't survive my army's onslaught without your trap."

 _You'll be sorely disappointed, Blister, I'm afraid._

"Bring death to the IceWing way!" another female SandWing screamed. "Queen Blister will rule over the Kingdom of Sand and the Ice Kingdom after today!"

"The Ice Kingdom will be Blister's final resting place before she has a chance to rule over it!" Glacier declared. "To battle!"

Their queen's order of "To battle!" echoed through her mixed army of IceWings and the SandWings that were loyal to Glacier and Blaze.

* * *

Blaze and Onyx were watching the battle start from an icy window in the stronghold. Blaze was thinking about how thankful she was to not be a part of this fight. She would have been a liar if she'd told Glacier she was an amazing fighter like her sisters were.

Still, it would be wrong of the SandWing princess not to watch; for it was a part of the war that would hopefully determine the next SandWing queen, preferably her.

She did not wish to see Blister or Burn become tyrant queens that only start future wars for their own pleasure. Blaze almost felt guilt to even think such a thing, but she secretly hoped that her sisters would not live through the war just so any chance of them becoming the next SandWing queen would be eliminated.

The two hiding SandWings nearly screamed when they see the broken body of an IceWing drop from the sky right past the window.

There was a gaping hole in his chest that told them he was the victim of a SandWing's barbed tail.

A SangWind soon followed his victim to the ground, his head bashed in by none other than Queen Glacier herself.

She was now armed with a club-like object made from solid ice.

 _I wish I could be a queen like Glacier_ , Blaze thought miserably. _But I don't know anything about fighting. And I'm too vain to want to get blood on my talons…_

"BLISTER!" Glacier bellowed. "Let our soldiers fight amongst each other. I'm not out here for them. I'm here for _you_. We should see how you enjoy having your carcass mounted on your conqueror's wall."

Blister laughed wickedly. "That's not a horrible idea. Your stuffed and mounted head would make for a _beautiful_ addition to my collection of heads. I've never killed a queen before! You'd be a good start."

"I'll bash your brains all over the tundra if you even try it," Glacier snarled.

Blister responded by attacking with her venomous tail, but it was immediately met by a blow from the IceWing queen's club.

 _She's fast with that club,_ Blister thought. _I'll just have to be faster. That shouldn't be too difficult. There's no way this IceWing is a better fighter than I am. She has no combat experience like I do._

Blood and a tooth suddenly fly through the air. At first, Blister has no idea whose it is, but then she realizes it when the cold air of this kingdom causes her excruciating pain. She notices the blood splatter on Glacier's club, and connects the dots in her mind. It was her tooth that was knocked out, and her blood that rained down on the tundra.

In a rage, Blister lashed out repeatedly with her tail, sometimes only being met by Glacier's club, and other times nearly striking a fatal blow against her chest.

Blister had gone insane.

"Die! Die! Die! I'll fill you with so much venom you'll explode!"

Again she had been struck by the club, this time in the breast. Immediately bouncing back from the blow she swung her stinger towards Queen Glacier in hope it strikes its intended target however, a younger IceWing dived straight into the path of the attack.

Glacier suddenly screamed in distraught the moment she realized her niece had saved her life at this moment, but before she could think she watched her plummet to the tundra below, a gaping hole through her torso.

"Pity."

Blister's cold remark sent the queen into a fit of rage, as an older dragon joins her side ready to kill.

Blister took note of the other IceWing, glaring at her darkly.

"Go to Hell you cur!" The other IceWing spat.

"Tundra! No!"

Blood sprayed from a small gash carved into Blister's chest by Tundra's blade, but the princess becomes limp immediately after her attack.

Glacier was horrified to see Blister's venomous barb piercing Tundra's neck.

"Two IceWing princesses down. Blaze soon to be in her grave." Blister began calmly. " _Now for the queen!_ " she added in a roar.

Princess Tundra's lifeless body fell down to her namesake below with a thud. The resulting cracking of her bones made Glacier feel nauseated, but she could not afford to let such distractions and grief get to her right now or she'll find herself among her fallen sister-in-law and niece, her dead and broken body freezing on the tundra.

Without taking her eyes off Blister, Glacier issued a command to the nearest general who had just carved an enemy SandWing down to size.

"Go to the stronghold with anyone you can find! Blister has sent an assassin after Blaze and Onyx!"

"Yes, your majesty!" the general, Prince Narwhal, said, but not before his blade cuts through a NightWing's throat. His body landed below with after Narwhal took off with the only two soldiers he could get the attention of. Glacier notices out of the corner of her eye they were her nephews Prince Winter and Prince Arctic

 _You bring him back alive, Prince Narwhal_ , she thought. _I've lost my niece and sister-in-law already. I won't lose two my nephews as well!_

Glacier found herself blocking another strike of Blister's tail with her club. She was amazed that Blister wasn't letting her flesh wound slow her down.

How was she going to end this fight with Blister?

She won't be able to keep her strength up to keep blocking the SandWing's tail strikes for much longer, and even though Blister would never admit it, she had to be getting tired too.

Then she remembers all IceWings have a secret ability they only resort to using when they are caught in a dire situation. If she must really use her ice breath, Blister's chance of winning this exchange would become minimal.

* * *

"That was Queen Glacier's niece and sister-in-law that aunt Blister killed…" Onyx gasped. "How much longer can Queen Glacier keep fending off her attacks like that?"

"I don't know. But she must. If she can just get one good hit in on Blister with that club, it's all over. She can finish off Blister then if she's fast enough." Glacier would have to be fast, just to avoid being stung in the heart by Blister's venomous barb.

"Queen Glacier will…" Onyx began.

"Shush. Something's not right, Onyx." Blaze paused. "We're not alone in here."

Out of nowhere, Blaze found herself almost knocked out cold by a SkyWing she'd never seen before.

He was armed with Scarlet's trademark blades.

 _An assassin,_ Blaze thought. _My haggish sister must have paid him off well to kill me. SkyWings are allied with Burn, not Blister. They're as much the enemy of Blister as they are Onyx and me._

"This will be easy," the assassin laughed, striking Onyx round her head before Blaze could even recover.

"Onyx!" Blaze cried. Her niece was lying lifelessly behind the assassin. "If you killed her, you'll pay dearly!"

Blaze began to stand, though groggily.

She threw off her fur coat and any other trinkets as if to show she meant business, but in reality, Blaze was thinking about how she didn't want to get any blood on them if she did have to fight this SkyWing.

"And what can you do to me? Everyone knows that you, Princess Blaze, have no combat experience. You couldn't fight your way out of a bed sheet. How do you expect to survive a real battle?"

 _Onyx,_ Blaze thought.

Her little niece was getting up and the stupid SkyWing didn't even know it.

"OW!" the SandWing suddenly screamed when the assassin kicked her in the ribs _hard_. She heard and felt at least five of her ribs breaking from the kick. "Bastard…" she groaned, still trying to lift herself up.

"Stay down you pathetic creature. Now I understand why your sister paid me so well to kill you. It would be an insult to someone of her importance to have your blood on her talons. You aren't even worthy of having your head chopped off by royalty. But I'm sure it will make a nice addition to your sister's wall of trophies. I'll even let her take all the credit for it! I hear fratricide can make you famous among some dragons."

"Onyx…" Blaze groaned again.

"What are you babbling about?"

The assassin subsequently spat on Blaze's face.

A look of fury came across the SandWing princess' face. There was a glare in her eye like nothing she'd ever sported before. If he really dared to spit on her like that then…

Much to the assassin's chagrin, Blaze responded to his insulting behavior by burying her fangs into his ankle so deep she could almost feel the bone, while repeatedly stabbing her venomous barb into his leg.

All the while this was happening, the assassin still didn't seem to notice Onyx sneaking up on him.

Blaze's little niece readied her barbed tail for the perfect moment to strike.

Blaze didn't weaken the grip her jaws had on the assassin's ankle when she pulled back.

She ripped out a chunk of flesh, which she quickly spat out in disgust.

"Yuck! I'll never do that again!"

"You're right! You won't have the head to bite another dragon!"

"And you won't have a heart! NOW ONYX!"

 _What?_

The assassin turned around to the dragonet he'd thought was out cold flying at him. She lands on him and before he could react, Onyx's deadly barb had pierced into his heart.

The SkyWing assassin felt Onyx's venom pumping into his heart, and his heartbeat sped up tremendously.

It was as if his heart was about to explode.

He threw Onyx off him and turned his attention back to Blaze.

"If I'm to die, so are—"

"Only you will die!" Blaze declared.

The assassin had not expected to turn around to bear witness to Blaze wielding his blade as if she'd been trained with it.

Blaze swung the blade at the assassin's neck.

A second later, the SkyWing's head detached from his neck and dropped to the floor.

Blaze let the dead assassin's sword fall to the metal floor with a clank. She fell backwards against the wall of her stronghold with a loud groan.

Onyx couldn't believe her eyes.

"Aunt Blaze…you fought like a real warrior!"

"I'm…I'm not so sure I like killing," the SandWing princess sighed. "I don't like the way it has left my heart racing."

The truth was, however, that Blaze felt as if her heart was going to beat right out of her chest, it was still beating so fast.

"Princess Blaze! Onyx!" a voice called from the stairs.

It was Glacier's best general and two of her nephews.

Winter, Narwhal, and Arctic froze when they saw the headless SkyWing.

"We're alright," Blaze panted. She'd since sat down against the far wall of the floor, with Onyx by her side. Somehow they'd avoided getting a lot of blood on them. The only blood on Blaze was from when she bit the assassin on the ankle. "I don't know how I learned to do it but I killed him. With help from little Onyx here of course."

"The battle…outside. We must see what is happening," Onyx suddenly blurted as if she were interested in battle all of a sudden.

Blaze was the first to look out the window, after there was a sudden roar of horror. It seemed the battle had ended, and the IceWings and their SandWing allies had won. But she could not see where Glacier and Blister were, or why there was even a bellow from outside.

* * *

The once beautiful glacier had been soaked with blood. Blaze and Onyx were relieved to see that most of the fatalities were on the enemy side, but none of them were Blister or Morrowseer. Still, it made Blaze's heart ache to see ten dead dragons whom she could have said were like friends to her. Among them are the princesses Tundra and Icicle.

Blaze, Onyx, Prince Winter, and Prince Narwhal, found Glacier a few feet away from all the death, sitting with her other nephew, Hailstorm.

"We won," Blaze said.

"I am glad you are alive," said Glacier, "but are you hurt?"

"It is not my blood. That assassin shouldn't have underestimated Onyx and me just because we have no combat experience. I hope he doesn't need his head for anything," Blaze chuckled weakly. "I don't think I'll ever fight though. Even if it was to save myself and Onyx, I do not like killing other dragons. It has nothing to do with my vanity, either. It just does not feel right to me."

"I can respect that. Killing is a terrible thing. But sometimes it must be done for the greater good, as you learned today Blaze. Do not fear having to kill to protect those you love. Remember that and you will make a great queen for the SandWings one day. There are necessary evils in our world, and sometimes killing is one of them. I have killed many enemy dragons to protect my family and my kingdom, and I would gladly do it again if I must."

Blaze sighed. "You're right. I cannot go my whole life being like those monks in Jade Mountain. If I had not killed the assassin, I would not be here right now and I don't think Onyx would be either." She pulled her niece closely. "I love you, you little dragonet."

Onyx smiled. "I love you too, aunt Blaze."

This brought tears to Glacier's eyes.

She was a strong queen, but moments between family like this always know how to tug at her heartstrings.

"Tell me," Glacier chuckled softly. "Do you still want to prepare for your hatching day celebration? I don't think your sister will attack us again anytime soon after the devastating loss she suffered here. Her pride is broken and I think most of her ribs are too. She won't be using her barbed tail to hurt anyone again either."

She motioned to where the severed barb lay on the tundra.

It had to have been frozen by Glacier's deadly frost breath and subsequently shattered while still attached to Blister's body. Blaze shuddered at the thought of that happening even to her own tail.

"I think we will have plenty of time to focus on less serious tasks for a while and help you with setting up for your hatching day celebration. It can double as a victory celebration, if you wish."

Blaze smiled weakly.

"That would be great," she said. "I would like that a lot. But we need to get our rest first…I don't want to think about any hard work after this day."

"I can support that," Glacier said. "Everyone deserves some rest after this battle. You all did a fine job today. You especially Blaze. If this short battle changed anyone today, it was you. You realized that fighting and killing isn't always the wrong thing to do."

This day would go down in the history records of the Ice Kingdom as simply 'Battle of the Ice Kingdom'. Glacier would make sure that Blaze's bravery would not be forgotten by time, either, when the record of this short battle, which only lasted an hour, is written out by her best scholars.

For now, it would just be a time of rest for most, and of grieving the fallen for others. Glacier declared that the rest of the day will be one of rest. It was the least she could do for her soldiers who made it through the battle, and above all, for Blaze. She'd proven herself capable of taking part in fighting today when no one thought she ever would, and that makes her worthy of the IceWings' respect.

Once again, Blaze looked down at her niece and said, "I love you, you little dragonet. Even a battle can't split you and me apart. Nothing ever will."


	9. Chapter 8: Eye of the Storm

**Author's note:** Not quite as much as in the previous chapter, but a few lines were added to this (when Clay and his friends are arguing about the weather) to make it a little more funny by mikey1393drago.

And yeah, this chapter was _a lot_ shorter than the last one. I'd seen that coming though.

* * *

 **Chapter 8:  
Eye of the Storm**

Clay and his group had been spending a few days resting somewhere in Diamond Spray Delta, so Kestrel would have enough energy to make it through the long flight to the Kingdom of the Sea.

They were only about halfway to their destination.

"Have all you heard the news?" a traveling NightWing was saying. "There was just a battle that took place at the Ice Kingdom between Queen Glacier' and Princess Blister's armies."

"What?!" everyone in Clay's group gasped.

"Princess Blister's army was defeated, and what is even more remarkable is there are rumors that _Princess Blaze_ actually killed a dragon. Supposedly it was a SkyWing assassin hired by Blister to kill Blaze and their niece Onyx. But Blaze and Onyx outsmarted him and he, well, lost his head."

"I never thought there'd be a day where we hear about Princess Blaze actually fighting!" Glory exclaimed. "It's almost too good to be true."

"Maybe Blaze would make a good successor to Queen Oasis after all," Drakon said. "If she can fight to defend herself and her niece from a trained assassin, when she has no experience to speak of, she can surely be the next SandWing queen."

"Well. I'll be damned," Kestrel laughed, even though it made her injury ache more to do so. "Blaze finally found her spine. Now if she can just keep it! Oh. Ow. It still hurts to laugh…"

"This is interesting and all guys," Tsunami interrupted, "but it doesn't really help us get to the Kingdom of the Sea any faster. Kestrel's already said she's ready for the flight, so what are we waiting for?"

"Well." Clay shrugged. "Nothing really now."

"It was good to talk to you. I guess," Glory said to the NightWing who had just gave them that news about the short Battle of the Ice Kingdom. "But Tsunami wants to be going now. It's a long way to the Kingdom of the Sea, you know."

"I've never been there."

"Well!"

Glory just turned and lifted herself off the ground.

The rest of her group began to follow her.

The NightWing started talking to herself when she believed those dragons were out of hearing range.

"Princesses Blister and Burn will find it all too interesting to hear that the dragonets of destiny are heading to the Kingdom of the Sea," she said. "I'll be coming into a fortune after this. I'll get my treasure, and they'll have to fight amongst themselves over whose army gets to destroy the Kingdom of the Sea to find the dragonets of destiny!"

An hour into their resumed flight, Clay and his group could no longer see the shoreline they had left. Nor could they see the archipelago they were looking for.

"So, Tsunami, how far until we've arrived at the Summer Palace now?" Glory asked.

"You really want to know?"

"Yes!" everyone, including Glory, answered.

"Okay! I didn't request blown out eardrums!" Tsunami shook her head to get her ears feeling back to normal. "At least another 400 miles. We're just beyond the halfway point now. According to the map we looked back before we left the cave, there are islands that are part of the Kingdom of the Sea that are closer, but the nearest palace is the Summer Palace located on the northern-most island."

"Uh oh," Kestrel groaned. "Are there really no islands we can take pit stops on? I don't know if I can carry myself 400 miles!"

"Unless there are uncharted islands on the way, I don't think so I'm afraid," Tsunami sighed. "Trust me, I wish there was. The idea of flying for 400 miles doesn't exactly appeal to me either. I want to see my family as much as anyone else would want to, but I don't want my wings to stop working before we even get there either."

"Um. Guys!" Sunny piped in. "Maybe we should try to find an island to make a pit stop on _now_! Look there!"

"It looks like a storm is picking up!" Tsunami said.

"Alright, Sherlock!" Glory shouted over the wind that suddenly became louder. "Who told you that? Starflight?"

"Hey!" Starflight shouted back.

"Don't even start it or I'll do some burning of scales!" Peril bellowed. "We don't need anymore arguing right now. What we _do_ need to do is find somewhere to get out of this storm."

"She's right! I think it's the warning signs of a hurricane."

"What the heck is a hurricane?!" Clay screamed.

"You ever heard of a tornado?" Starflight asked, to which Clay nodded. "Pretty much the same thing. But in the middle of the ocean instead."

Tsunami wanted to scream "YOU'D BE A TERRIBLE METEOROLOGIST, STARFLIGHT!" at Starflight.

But instead, she ended up screaming,"And much deadlier! The last thing you want to get caught in is a hurricane. It'd make being a prisoner of Scarlet's seem like heaven in comparison! At least then you'd know when you'd die! Your survival is uncertain in a hurricane!"

"Is that an island?!" Starflight cried over the sound of the ever-intensifying winds.

"YES!" Tsunami called out triumphantly. "Let's go!"

"Where there are islands, there are caves!" Sunny added. "We'll be perfectly fine when we get there! But one question! Where is the swirling wind? Starflight, you said there'd be swirling wind over the ocean! I don't see any!"

Clay could not help whacking Sunny with his tail.

"OW! CLAY!"

"I'm sorry! It got caught by the wind!"

"'Caught by the wind' my foot! I know that's not true!" Sunny screeched. She subsequently whacked him across the head with her own tail. "Oh! Darn that wind! Sorry Clay!" she falsely apologized. "It's just not the same!"

"Alright!" Clay shook his head in disgust. The next thing he knew, he was being somersaulted through the air by an unbelievably strong gust of wind, and he realizes the goofing around must stop. "Everyone, hold onto somebody else!" Clay shouted.

He of course had to be the one to hold onto Peril. The others couldn't even touch her without fear of disintegrating immediately.

Normally even Clay had to be careful with how long he touched Peril, but in this icy downpour, it was as if Peril was being cooled down enough for Clay to keep his arm over her back constantly for once.

"Oh! Three moons!" Peril exclaimed. "Our luck just keeps getting better! There's a cave right here on the beach!"

"It's about time fate is on our side!" Sunny cheered.

A minute later, everyone was comfortably in the cave, gathered around a fire that they wouldn't have if it were not for Peril's presence. They'd gathered up arms full of wet foliage from the edge of the sand and brought it into the cave, where Peril set it ablaze with a single gentle tap of her talons in spite of how wet the plants had been.

"So…" Glory said. "Out of our 400 mile journey, we've made it 30 miles. Not too bad I'd say considering the hurricane."

"I don't even know if you're being sarcastic anymore or not!" Starflight groaned.

"I always talk this way!" Glory threw her front legs up defensively. _That's starting to feel like a bad habit!_ she thought. She knew it wasn't the first time she'd thrown her arms up like that recently. "Of course you'll never know when I'm being sarcastic and when I'm not."

"Look, isn't it good enough that we're warm and dry while we wait for the storm to blow over?" Drakon interrupted.

"I'd be happier if we had food too!" Clay complained.

"Huh?" Drakon said.

"Clay's a MudWing," Starflight pointed out. "They love to eat more than anything else."

"And there's no food here," Tsunami said with a frown.

"No food?!" Clay whimpered. "Oh, I'm gonna become skin and bones before the hurricane is gone!"

"Stop exaggerating," Sunny laughed. "Nobody starves that fast."

"Nobody his size especially," Glory muttered.

"Glory!" Tsunami gasped. "Why would you say something like that?"

"What?" Clay's head spun around. "What'd she say?"

"So what that Clay eats a lot? It doesn't bother me that he's the biggest dragon here. I love him all the same and so should you."

"Hey hey hey. Now wait a minute! I didn't say I don't like Clay any less because of it! If anything I was trying to reassure him that he'd be fine if he didn't eat for a little while."

When they heard Clay's stomach growl as if it disagreed with Glory, the entire group, Kestrel excluded only because she knows such movement would only make her injury hurt more, began rolling over with laughter.

"Oh, I'm dying!" Sunny screeched.

"I can't take it anymore!" Peril agreed.

"Three moons, just look at all that rain!" Kestrel said. "Is it always like this out in the ocean?"

"Unfortunately so," Tsunami sighed. "I don't think it's this bad under the sea though."

"Who said anything about us going _under_ the sea?" Peril asked. "You're the only one here with gills!"

"That's why we're stopping at the Summer Palace. It's where non-SeaWing guests are more than welcome to stay, according to what I read before we left the library."

"I hate to change the subject," Drakon whispered, "but how long do these hurricanes normally last? So I can know how long we're gonna be stuck here!" he raises his voice as if to show he's panicking.

"If the scrolls I read are accurate, it can be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks," Tsunami answered.

"A FEW WEEKS?!" the others screamed.

"Oh, I am going to starve now!" Clay cried. "I'll have to eat sand just to feel full!"

"What a drama queen," Glory said, then realized she hadn't kept that as a thought in her mind when everyone in the cave looks at her in shock. "Um. Oops?"

She chuckled nervously. Her scales are changing to only a pink hue, showing how embarrassed she really is without her having to say a word about it.

"'Oops?' is right, I'd say!" Sunny chirped.

"Look I'm sorry Clay, alright?" Glory quickly said before anyone could get on her case about it. "I didn't even mean to say that!"

"But you meant to think it," said Starflight.

Everyone looks at him and said, "Huh?"

"She only wanted to think it."

"Since when are you able to read minds like other NightWings?" Sunny asked, hopping over to her boyfriend.

"I couldn't until a few days ago. I just never had a reason to tell you guys I could."

 _So Starflight could know I love Tsunami and Peril both?!_ Clay thought with alarm.

Much to the confusion of the rest of his group, Clay subsequently buried his face under his paws.

"Well it seems Clay has something embarrassing in his thoughts that Starflight could've accidentally read!" Peril chuckled. "What Clay, did Starflight catch you daydreaming about my tail-end or something?"

"Oh, please don't make me laugh!" Kestrel pleaded.

Sunny sighed heavily when the group's fit of laughter subsided.

"What are we going to do in the meantime while we wait for the storm to pass?" she asked. "I can't think of much to keep us occupied that is in this cave."

Although he was still blushing over Peril's remark, which was a lot more true than any of the group, besides Starflight, would ever know, Clay suggested: "Looking for some real food would be nice!"

"Besides food," Sunny added. She was somehow unamused this time. "We can't go outside right now. The wind would probably carry us away."

Clay frowned.

The group remains silent.

Sunny's wings drooped.

She whined. "So much for keeping ourselves occupied…" A pause. "Oh, how I love sitting around on my tail, bored out of my mind waiting forever for a hurricane to go away! It's just so damn exciting I can't contain myself!"

"Sunny?!" Starflight gasped.

"What?" she squeaked.

"You never swear!"

Sunny shrugged. "Boredom makes you do anything."

Kestrel shifted her weight. Her shoulder was aching again.

"I think all we can do," Kestrel interrupted, "is sleep. I mean, come on, it's already dark out. You guys would sleep at this time anyway? Why's so different now? We can barely hear the storm this far back into this cave."

"I'm not tired!" most of them answered in unison.

"Well too bad. I remember when you five dragonets of destiny had nothing to do under the mountain, we'd just make you sleep to get over it. That's what you should all do now, even if you aren't tired. What else are you gonna do? Wait until you're tired enough to fall asleep? I'm sorry, but that's just stupid. We have a long flight in store for us tomorrow, so we all need as much sleep as we can get. But do what you want, as long as it's quiet. I'm tucking my wings in for the night. Don't let me hear any ruckus out of any of you dragonets once I've fallen asleep! Understood?"

The rest of the group only nodded.

Clay sighed a minute later. "I suppose she's right. Maybe going to sleep earlier will get my mind off my hunger, too…"


	10. Chapter 9: The Lost Heir's Return

**Author's note:** Just so he gets the credit he deserves, this chapter was also co-written by myself and mikey1393drago. I think it may have happened on accident but we ended up writing this chapter together earlier in the week. I also want to note that the OC Aquamarine was made after I decided to not have Princess Orca appear in this story like I did before, for possible plot reasons. So the alternative was making up a new character, and that was where Aquamarine (named by mikey1393drago, if I remember right) came from. I also modified Chapter 3 of this story to reflect this change.

And this is the last chapter I'll be posting (to catch posting everything I'd written already) today unless I happen to finish chapter 10 that I started yesterday.

* * *

 **Chapter 9:  
The Lost Heir's Return**

"I don't see any palace!" Kestrel said. "Are you sure we've even flown to the right part of the archipelago?"

Clay's group had believed they were so close to their destination after another 360 miles of flight after they waited out the hurricane, and now they felt crushed that they may have flown right past the Summer Palace in the Kingdom of the Sea without even knowing it.

"Maybe we should fly back. It's on the largest island of the archipelago," Starflight suggested.

"'Fly back'?!" Kestrel screamed. "Do you know what this flight has already done to my body? I'm not gonna be flying much longer unless you want to carry me! Do you not see my damn useless wing?"

"For once I must agree with Kestrel," Glory said. "Besides you'd be lying if you said we're not lost."

Peril flies up between them, sending the group besides Clay scattering.

"Lost?!" she screeched. "Are you kidding me?" Then she growls. "Oh, that makes want me burn something!"

Starflight immediately hid behind Sunny, even though he was twice her size.

"Hey hey! Don't look at me! I didn't get us lost! And don't you think NightWings burn better than other dragons!"

Peril blinked. "When did I say anything about _that_? I just want to burn something to relieve this stress."

"Why are you all looking at me now?!" Clay shrieked.

"Aww Clay! So silly! I guess I'll cuddle you now then. Heh, heh."

"Ugh! They aren't gonna f—"

"Don't even go there Glory!" Sunny barked.

Glory's remark somehow went right over Drakon's head, and for that the rest of the group was thankful.

"Go where?"

"You're too young to understand Drakon."

"But aren't we all seven years old?" Drakon asked.

"Well…You're still a year underdeveloped my boy," Kestrel quickly remarked without an issue.

"Technically…!"

"Oh, here we go!" Glory interrupted. "Mr. Technical is here!"

Starflight ignored her. "Technically, we are still not mature enough to be doing things like that," he stated matter-of-factly. "We have one more year before we're even officially adults."

"Three moons, Starflight!" Tsunami cut in. "Did you forgot what your scrolls say about dragons? We're all young adults!" She paused. A funny look came over her face. "Physically anyway…"

"No I remembered correctly. We are not officially adults until age eight. We may be young adults, but we are not yet mature."

"You could say that again," Kestrel muttered under her breath. "I've known that since two of you dragonets snuck out of the cave and ended up leading Scarlet back to it." Then she felt stupid. "Enough though. Either you dragonets find this supposed Summer Palace soon or your muscles are gonna be working overtime by having to support me."

"Why don't you just glide on the wind for a while if flapping your wings is really bothering you so much?" Tsunami suggested.

"I think we're just about to be shown the way to the Summer Palace," Sunny said.

"What the heck does that mean?" Peril asked.

She backed away from Clay, who also cast a confused glare in Sunny's direction.

"That."

"A SeaWing!" Tsunami exclaimed joyously. She darted off in its direction, not even thinking to wait for the rest of the group.

"Wait Tsunami!" Clay hollered.

"Princess Aquamarine!" Tsunami called to the SeaWing who had looked familiar from the moment she laid her eyes on her.

"What? Tsunami!" Aquamarine cannot believe it. "You actually came all this way?"

"Of course! I couldn't just turn down an invitation to finally meet up with my family." Tsunami, however, changed the subject quickly, for the rest of the group's sake. That, and she'd noticed Kestrel's burning stare. "But can you show us the way to the Summer Palace? Because of, a friend, we're lost."

"Certainly. It's just down there on the largest island."

"You mean to tell me we were this close already?!" Kestrel exploded. "I could've been resting already!"

She nearly flew away from the others in a fury and up several feet to where Tsunami was conversing with her sister, but Peril flying in her way was enough to bring Kestrel to a halt. She grumbled to herself bitterly as she flew back to Clay and Starflight.

"Don't mind her. She's just been salty for a while about having to use her bad wing for flight."

Kestrel cleared her throat. "I beg your pardon? You know I can still hear you down here right?"

 _I'm finally home_ , Tsunami thought. _But will mother even know me? I was taken by Webs away from here before I even hatched._

"A mother will always recognize her child," Starflight said. Tsunami's wings almost locked up from the shock of his sudden intrusion and she briefly fell into a rapid descent towards the sea.

"Gah! Ugh! S-Starflight!" Tsunami shook her head furiously as she recovered from her fright. "Go read someone else's mind for crying out loud! And don't ever sneak up on me like that again, unless you want to fish me out of the damn ocean!"

She flashed the bioluminescent scales on her tail three times and followed up it with a rapid flashing of scales on her snout and sides to say "Go disappear like a shadow you dunce!" in Aquatic before leaving him to wonder what she'd said to him this time.

"Are you coming?" Tsunami asked the rest.

"Mother will be so happy to see you, Tsunami," Aquamarine said, pretending none of that happened. "Everyone will. When you were still an egg, you were all she ever talked about. I'll never forgot the time she spent a whole week in the royal hatchery with your egg. I also remember your father had been so worried that she would never come out of the hatchery."

 _Wait. I need to tell them about my father in the SkyWing arena! Scarlet said he was one of her slaves she'd brought to watch my fight with Peril!_

"I…think I've seen my father…" Tsunami whispered.

"How?" Aquamarine gasped. "He was taken by the…SkyWings." _That's right. She said she'd been captured by Queen Scarlet._ "You saw him in Scarlet's arena, didn't you?"

Tsunami nodded.

"Your mother has been planning a mission to rescue your father ever since he was captured not even two months ago," she continued. "But the council can't ever agree on a plan to save him from the SkyWings. I fear it is a lost cause now, though. Scarlet doesn't let her enemies live more than a few months, unless she has a good reason to."

Tsunami sniffed. "At least I got to see dad once…I guess. I just wish I could somehow get to know him. It would take a miracle, if what you say about Scarlet is true."

There was a moment of silence between the two sisters before Aquamarine spoke again.

"I suppose I should tell mother this when we get to the Summer Palace," she whispered. "Someone has too. She can't just go to the Sky Kingdom and have it be a lost cause." She paused. "But I know mother is bound to send in spies to at least find out if he's dead or alive. She would never give up on dad without knowing first."

"Spies?"

"Yes. She has a few SkyWings that do not agree with Scarlet's ways. Of course Scarlet does not know this, so they have been able to bring back our mother information from within the Sky Kingdom. She will have them see if our dad is still…" Aquamarine choked up. "…a-alive."

"Is that the Summer Palace?" Tsunami asked, for she cannot handle talking about their dad's fate anymore.

"Yes. That is it."

Tsunami waved back at her friends to catch up.

She looked back at Aquamarine.

"Is mother there right now?"

"No, but news travels fast here. She'll swim up from the deep palace soon as she hears her lost daughter has returned. She has been awaiting this day ever since Commander Shark and the rest of us you met that day at Diamond Spray River returned to the palace to tell her you were not with the Talons of Peace anymore. She was ecstatic. Our mother had been on the edge of depression ever since dad was captured by a SkyWing patrol. News of your freedom nearly snapped her out of it."

* * *

"Everyone, listen!" Aquamarine announced as she led Tsunami's group through the entrance of the Summer Palace.

They were all in awe of how beautiful this palace was. It was decorated all over with all sorts of corals and other preserved colorful sea life, shells, and artwork everywhere they looked.

"The lost princess has been found! Princess Tsunami is free and alive!"

"Tsunami?" several female SeaWings gasped. They were busy chatting amongst themselves and having their eyelids decorated by another she-dragon using a special octopus ink that changed color depending on the lighting.

"You can finish that later!" one of them said to the artist.

"Princess Tsunami is back!"

"Tsunami?" the artist gasped. "The egg that was stolen from the royal hatchery?!"

"Yes! The very one!"

"Woah!" Tsunami gasped. "A welcoming party."

"So many of them have waited years for your return, sis," Aquamarine explained. "They never lost hope that you would return, just like the princess in _The Missing Princess_."

"That's my favorite story!" Tsunami piped up. "I used to read that all the time when I was under the mountain with some of the Talons of Peace."

"Then you'll be even happier to know that our mother is _The Missing Princess'_ author."

Tsunami choked. "W-What? She is?!"

"Yes! Your mother is a talented writer. She has written many stories on scrolls in her lifetime," Aquamarine explained. "Her most well-known stories in the Kingdom of the Sea are, of course, _The Missing Princess_ , but there's also _The Tragedy of Orca_ , _Claws of Murder_ , _On the Differences between Clams and Oysters_ , and _Gill & Coral_."

" _The Tragedy of Orca_?" Tsunami asked. "Who is Orca?"

"We try not to talk about it."

Tsunami was bothered by the sudden shift in Aquamarine's tone. She had been so happy one minute, and now she was speaking ominously.

"Okay…"

"I'll tell you later, when we have privacy. It's just really tragic. We try not to talk about it in public spaces, just in case our mother is within hearing range. It's a true story of a tragedy she experienced before any of our siblings from your generation were born." She paused. "That includes Princess Turtle and Prince Cerulean, too."

"I remember them. They _attacked_ me at Diamond Spray River."

"Yes. Mother gave them a harsh talking too in the Deep Palace. She grounded them to their chambers for a week."

"So they're still grounded?"

"Thankfully! They're out of my scales for a few more days. I couldn't stand taking them on mainland patrols. They may be the same age as you and me, but I tell you, they act like children sometimes. I don't know why mother insists on Uncle Shark and I taking them on patrol?"

"Commander Shark is our uncle?!" Tsunami exclaimed.

"Yep. On our mother's side."

Suddenly, a commotion broke out just around one of the corners in the room.

"My daughter!" a noble-sounding female voice cried. "Is it true that my daughter is here in the Summer Palace?!"

"What's happening?" Peril asked.

She had been standing in the middle of the room to stay away from anything here that might burn. She didn't wish to make a horrible first impression in a place she has never been. Still, there are some SeaWings giving Peril nervous glares, for they have noticed how her scales are steaming not unlike boiling water, as if they knew Peril was a dragon with firescales.

"What was Princess Aquamarine thinking bringing SkyWings here?" one of them hissed. "Burn and Scarlet aren't allies of her majesty!"

"And what's worse is, that SkyWing there has firescales!" said another. "One wrong movement and she could end up burning down the entire Summer Palace!"

"Her majesty won't be pleased when she sees her," said a third.

"They're only insults," Peril started averring to herself, under her worried shaking. "No need to argue. Don't think about attacking," she kept telling herself.

"Honestly, she's not safe to even be in the water! The heat coming from her, the water will evaporate," insulted a fourth SeaWing, this time female.

"Well I guess you can't handle a sauna, witch," Peril muttered under her breath, as she glared at that female SeaWing.

"Peril, relax! I'm…" Clay started, trying to comfort her, but Peril interrupted him mid-sentence.

"How can I relax if everything around me burns?" She looked around, trying to find some water to hide from them. "I don't care if water evaporates around me! I'm going there to calm down!"

Peril began to head off.

"And while you're at it, keep away from us!" a previous SeaWing shouted towards her, which quickly caused her to cry in depression.

Clay looked at him and shook his head in disgust, wishing he could say something. He felt bad that Peril was getting bullied, but if he attacked any of them, he may be imprisoned by Queen Coral herself. They were all complete strangers, even Tsunami for Queen Coral had only seen her as an egg, after all.

"Who does she think she is, coming here with her dangerous scales?" The same SeaWing questioned, looking at others to see if they agreed.

Clay however has had enough.

He walked up to him ready to have words.

"So _this_ is how you treat your guests. You dislike one and then talk behind her back! How could you?!"

Clay stormed off, trying to find Peril and check she was alright, much to the surprise of all his friends who witnessed him lose control.

The SeaWing he'd shouted at, just stared in awe and shock.

 _Where did that even come from?_ he wondered.

* * *

Peril had already found a deep pool outside the palace, wide enough for her wings to not even touch the ground for many meters. She sank low so only her head was above the water, and she had her back to the Summer Palace.

When he finally came out of the palace, Clay instantly heard water boiling and followed the sound until he found where Peril was, still crying loudly.

"Oh no. Peril."

Peril looked to Clay, sniffling and wiping her evaporated tears from her snout.

"Oh. Hey, Clay."

She turned away again, but Clay already knew what he was going to do.

"Ah. A hot spring. I'm so glad we have you with us Peril."

He casually joined her in the water, completely enjoying the warmth bubbling around him. He swam to be beside Peril, and brushed his head against hers.

She did the same, and a smile formed on her face, which was what Clay had hoped she would do with his comfort.

* * *

Suddenly, a majestic-looking SeaWing rushed around the corner. She was wearing all sorts of bead necklaces and other trinkets, ones that would only be found in the ocean, over her neck.

The other SeaWings became silent and started bowing in the presence of this larger SeaWing, which Clay's group mimicked. Something told them all this was Queen Coral.

"Tsunami dear!" She lifted her daughter up from her bowing posture, as she wept with joy and hugged Tsunami. "How I hoped we would all get to see you one day. I haven't seen you since you were an egg in the royal hatchery. And look at you now! My long-lost daughter is all grown-up!"

Tsunami blinked away tears.

"I always knew I had to have a mother somewhere in Pyrrhia who would love me!" she cried happily and hugged her mother tightly.

Suddenly, Coral realized something. Commander Shark had said there would also be a MudWing and a second SkyWing in the group her daughter was traveling with, but she did not see either of them.

"Where are my other two guests, dear?" Coral asked.

"Well. Our fellow SeaWings…" She paused to glare at the five in question. "…were disrespecting my friend Peril. I would have done something, but Clay got there first and well, he _kinda_ lost control."

"Did he strike?"

"No mum. Clay knows not to attack when there is no threat, as does Peril. She is just different is all, but I have no grudge. She headed to the large pool out there, and Clay followed moments after."

"I shall find them and bring them back." Coral started to head off, but looked at the SeaWings in question. "Any more insults, and you will be dealing with me! Understood!"

"Yes, your majesty!"

All the guilty SeaWings rapidly saluted at exactly the same time, before Coral headed towards the pool where Tsunami had said Clay and Peril headed.

* * *

"Ah. Hello Clay and Peril," Queen Coral kindly spoke as they both turn to bow in her respect, after getting over the initial fright they experienced from her unexpected greeting. "No need for that, but thank you for your kindness. I hear there have been some issues in the Summer Palace."

Much to both Peril and Clay's surprise, the queen dipped a foot in the water before diving so suddenly, splashing water over the area.

"A perfect degree."

She knew not to touch Peril but did not show it, for it would disrespect her guest. Coral lounged with a stretch, making Clay slightly uneasy.

 _Oh three moons! I'm in a hot bath with a queen!_ Clay thought, while trying to hide from Coral that he was shaking like a leaf.

"Ahh!" She let herself sink deeper. "It has all been sorted amidst my tribe. They will not make any more insults because they know I mean business if they do."

"I'm sorry, if I come across as an issue to your fellow SeaWings," whispered Peril. "I never asked to be like this."

"No no, it is perfectly fine," said Coral. "But there is a banquet at my palace soon if you would like to join us. We never eat underneath the water when it comes to celebration and visitors. My daughter has informed me on everything, so don't worry. Everything is planned for your appearance. So please, don't let insults upset you."

She climbed out and shook the excess water off her body.

"I look forward to your visit my little dragonets."

She headed off back to the confines of the Summer Palace. Clay and Peril look at each other, caress once more then climb out to head inside the queen's Summer Palace.

Upon entering, they saw that all the dragons which had been there were now gone. Did they leave them behind? Moments passed by and Tsunami's head appeared from under the water.

"Are you two lovewings done? We have all headed off to the feast."

"Lovewings!" Peril bellowed unorthodoxly.

"Sorry, it was just a term of endearment. I thought you liked Clay a lot more than you show."

"I do but…just don't bring it up!"

"Okay. I'm sorry."

Clay then said something. "Em. Where is it you have all gone?"

"To the banquet. I just said."

"Banquet?" Clay gasped. "Say no more!"

He then unprecedentedly dived under the water within seconds before Peril could even think.

"Wait! Clay—"

He soon realized his mistake, and bobbed his head out of the water. "Whereabouts do we go Tsunami?"

Tsunami simply giggled.

"There is an island in the peninsula, the farthest and smallest island. It is where the banquet will take place. Quickly, follow me! You are late, the pair of you!"


	11. Chapter 10: Coral's Royal Feast

**Author's note:** Not really much to say this time, except I have another chapter that mikey1393drago and I worked together on to post later today. I've been having fun with this story; it's been _years_ since I've written multiple chapters for a story in a day.

* * *

 **Chapter 10:  
Coral's Royal Feast**

Clay and Peril stared in awe at the now empty room that had been flooded with apparently busy SeaWings not even five minutes ago.

"How on Earth did everyone get there so fast?" Peril wondered out loud as Clay and Tsunami dived under the water. "I've never seen an entire room clear out so fast." She paused. "Except for that one time Scarlet had me act like I was in a rage to get those soldiers out of her chamber when they struck a nerve with her during a meeting…" _Why am I talking to myself?_ Peril thought. _It was funny though. They fled within seconds._

Now Peril realized she was all alone on the island where the Summer Palace resided. She blinked with surprise.

"Wait for me!" She dived head-first into the Bay of a Thousand Scales after her friends, just so she didn't get herself lost. For once she ignored all the steaming water that resulted from her presence.

When Peril finally caught up with Clay and Tsunami, they were climbing up onto the shoreline. That was when she caught a glimpse of another structure on another nearby island. It seemed different from the Summer Palace, not being decorated to look inviting at all to guests.

"Why would anyone want to live in some kind of palace like that?" Peril asked.

"That is no palace," said Aquamarine. "That is Princess Blister's hideout."

"Princess Blister's hideout?!" Clay, Tsunami, and Peril nearly screamed, but resisted the urge since Coral was a few feet away speaking with someone.

"Why would Princess Blister have a hideout here?" Tsunami wondered. Her gills were flaring angrily at the thought.

Aquamarine nearly shrunk back. She now remembered that wasn't something their mother would have wanted Tsunami to know. "I suppose I should just tell you now. You can't ask mother about it. She didn't want you to know, should you have ever found us again." She paused. "Well you see, mother and Blister, they've had a sort of deal for a while. They're not exactly allies of course, but they both share a common enemy in the form of Queen Scarlet."

"So she thought it was alright to have built a sanctuary for that psychopath?!"

"Please let me finish. There are too many guards here for Blister to pull any stunts. She wouldn't get very far even if she tried. Still, Blister has seemed more interested in Princess Anemone than thoughts of murder."

"Why would she be interested in Anemone?" Clay interrupted, even though he had no idea who that was. Now he felt foolish. "Um. Who is Anemone?"

"Tsunami's youngest sister."

"So why would a SandWing Princess be interested in my sister?"

"Don't let mother know I told you this, either." Aquamarine lowered her voice to a whisper only the four of them would hear. "Anemone is an animus dragon, and that has Blister very interested in her. Animus dragons have run in the bloodline of the Royal SeaWing Family ever since the time of our IceWing ancestors."

"Are you saying that I may be an animus dragon too?" Tsunami had to be balanced up straight by Clay, for she nearly fainted at the thought of it. She'd read about what being an animus can do to a dragon in all the Talons of Peaces' scrolls when she was younger and the things she'd read about were horrifying, to say the least. Especially the part about the animus SeaWing that was driven to madness by his powers and apparently murdered most of his family before he was killed. She shuddered at the thought of becoming like that, if she was an animus as well. "I-I need to set down for a moment."

What felt like forever in Clay's mind passed before Tsunami spoke again.

"Now tell me. Why exactly is Blister interested in Anemone just because she's an animus?"

"She thinks Anemone will be the perfect weapon against Burn and the SkyWings, if she can learn to control her animus magic in time for it to make a difference in this war. Apparently she thinks Anemone being able to control spears without teaching them can lead to her being able to make the entire Sky Palace collapse in on itself. I wanted to tell Blister that is nonsense during the meeting where she brought this plan up with mother, but I didn't want to disrespect mother so I bit my tongue. But I'll be blunt with you all. Blister's idea is absurd. She honestly can't expect a year-old dragon to master her animus magic that well. 'Anemone can make the Sky Palace collapse in on itself with practice,' she'd claimed," Aquamarine scoffed in the most disrespectful way she could. "I've never heard something so ridiculous in my life!"

"And some say Blister is smarter than Blaze and Burn," Peril muttered, shaking her head with disbelief. "I'm not sure I can believe that anymore."

"Oh," they heard Coral say suddenly. "The rest of our honored guests have arrived! Tsunami, please, bring your friends over here so they can dine with the rest."

Peril's glaze catches a few different SeaWings shaking nervously at their table as she passed by. She tried her best to ignore them, only because she wished to show respect for Coral after what the queen had done for her. Still, her brief glare at the nervous SeaWings said 'Say one word about my firescales. I dare you. You will not like me when I find you all alone later'.

"Where can Peril set?" Tsunami voiced the same concern she imagined all their little group had.

"I thought of that too, dear," Coral answered right away. "It's not the best," she said a little sadly, as if she felt bad about not having a table for Tsunami and her friends, "but this way you can all sit together and converse amongst each other."

Peril was the first to notice that none of their group was sitting at a table but on flat stone ground next to Coral's chair. Something told her this wasn't the most respectful means of seating for honored guests, but it was probably all Coral could do. Peril figured this was the first time they've had to make seating arrangements for a dragon with firescales at a banquet.

 _And probably the first time they haven't had a banquet under the water,_ she thought.

Whereas Clay seemed to be dying to dive into all these options of food that he'd never seen before, and didn't even know the names of for that matter, Peril seemed less anxious. It was sea food, she knew that much, so would that mean it'd just burn all the easier when she tried to eat it? She was used to eating animals like cows, goats, and now regrettably, a few rare scavengers that had been given to her as snacks because they'd not pleased Scarlet in her arena, because it did not burn as quickly when she'd ripped it apart with her talons to get the meat off the bones.

But all this food here was so different. What didn't appear to Peril as soft and spongy was inside a hard shell. How was she supposed to eat something that's in a shell or would just melt in her fiery grasp like whatever that jelly-looking creature was sitting on the table in a bowl a few feet away from Coral?

Clay leaned close to Peril.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"This food. Shells. Sponge-looking things. And I don't even know what to make of that jelly whatsit over there! How am I going to eat any of this without burning it in my talons before I can even enjoy it?"

"I'm sure Coral has considered that," Sunny whispered back. "Just wait for her to finish her speech before we worry about eating."

"W-What?" Clay whimpered. "I have to wait a few more minutes to eat after already not having food for almost two days because of that hurricane slowing us down?"

"Shush!" Kestrel hissed in a low voice. "Look at the way Commander Shark is already glaring at you kids. Tone it done a notch while she's speaking, if you really insist on speaking. Or better yet, _save it until she's not giving her speech anymore!_ " she concluded with a harsh whisper.

They decide to take Kestrel's advice and just listen to what Coral was saying, and not a moment too soon because she was just starting to introduce them all to her fellow SeaWings.

"As many of you may have already known, we have some honored guests with us tonight," Coral was saying. "We had to make special plans for our banquet to accommodate for them, because as you can see, only one of them is a SeaWing." She paused but only for a second. "First I would like to introduce a special dragon in my heart I have not seen since she was an egg. My daughter, the lost princess Tsunami, for whom I wrote the story _The Missing Princess_ about shortly after her egg was stolen from the royal hatchery by the Talons of Peace."

 _My mother wrote_ The Missing Princess _?!_ Tsunami almost blurted out. Then she remembered speaking with Aquamarine, and her sister telling her that already. Still, it was amazing for Tsunami to have learned that her favorite story from her childhood was written by none other her own mother. She couldn't stop thinking about how amazing that was.

"And she has made many unique friends," Coral continued. "We can learn from her, that it is not always a bad thing to trust non-SeaWings." She motioned at them with her right arm, as she named them off left to right. "Peril, Drakon, and Kestrel the SkyWings, Clay the MudWing, Starflight the NightWing, Sunny the SandWing-NightWing mix, and Glory the RainWing. Never before I have I ever seen such a unique group of friends in my life," she went on from her introduction. "But I am pleased that my lost daughter has found them all."

"All they need is an IceWing and the gang is all there," Tsunami swore she heard one of the SeaWings mutter.

However, none of Coral's relatives seemed to notice, nor did Coral herself. She kept on doing on in her speech as if nothing had been said.

On the other talon, Peril did however. She glared in the direction of where the voice came from, and the muttering immediately stopped when she mimed a slashing movement across her throat with a talon. Thankfully only her friends saw it, and none of the royalty they were sitting close to, or else there may have been an instant uproar over Peril's behavior.

"And so with that," Coral said louder than ever. "We can feast now!"

Clay could barely contain his excitement. Sure he didn't know what any of these food was, but when a MudWing like him hadn't eaten for two days, he had hope for trying anything new.

"Hey Tsunami, what's this?"

Clay had picked up some sort of red-shelled creature with six legs and two large pinchers, and he was now trying to determine what it was.

"That's a crab," Coral answered before Tsunami could even open her mouth. "You have to crack open its shell to get to the meat on the side." She passed a strange shiny object to Clay, and he looked at it then back to Coral as it to say 'What do I do with this?'. "We prefer to use this to break open the crab's shell. Trying to bite through it will only send you to our healers with missing teeth," she added in an oddly calm voice.

By the time Clay believed he had enough food, his coral plate had a crab, two jellyfish, a tuna, and even a sea sponge on it. Peril looked at his choices and wondered how he fit all that on one plate.

Peril sighed when it was her turn to approach the selection. She was relieved that her coral plate wasn't disintegrating in her grasp, but there was still the issue facing her. What could she eat that might be appealing? SkyWings weren't exactly known for gluttonous appetite like MudWings were, nor had she ever seen any seafood served up in the Sky Kingdom when Scarlet had banquets. It was always just land animals, and maybe sometimes a random bird or two. Scarlet had never served fish at her banquets, so Peril had no idea what to expect from its taste.

Or from the taste of _any_ of this strange selection before her.

"Hurry up FireWing! We're starving too!" a SeaWing complained from behind her.

Coral immediately got involved.

"Peril has never seen our selection of food before," the queen hissed. "Give her a moment to find something that looks appetizing to her and wait your turn. And another thing. Do not ever let me hear you talk to our honored guest that way again. Am I clear?"

"Yes, your majesty," he answered weakly. He subsequently nearly tripped over his own tail trying to back up when Coral got up close in his face.

"If I can make a suggestion…" Coral smiled down at Peril, who was still giving the selection an uncertain glare. "This Fire Eel will not burn in your grasp, and our huge selection of fish over here." She motioned with her claws to the food in question so Peril knew what she meant. "I know seafood is a little strange, but I'm sure you'll like the taste."

After taking two Fire Eels, Peril walked over to the table where the fish were as Coral suggested, then she realized how the queen hadn't been joking when she'd said "huge selection of fish". There was so much that Peril didn't even know where to begin, or know what fish would just become ash the moment she touched it.

 _Maybe I shouldn't even bother feasting like the rest of my friends are,_ Peril thought sadly. _I don't even know what I can eat among all this fish that won't catch fire soon as I lay my talons on it._

Peril heard her tears sizzling on her cheeks and frowned at being reminded of her firescales by her tears yet again.

"I'll just eat these two Fire Eels and be done with it," Peril grumbled and then returned to where her friends were already feasting.

"That's all you wanted Peril?" Starflight asked.

"It's all I can touch!" she snapped. "Anything else will just fall apart if I try to pick it up so what's the point of me feasting?"

Clay stopped immediately. He hadn't gotten to the fish he'd taken yet, so he started to hand it to Peril.

"I don't want to take food from any of you, so please, just keep it for yourself Clay. Thanks, but you guys don't need to be nice to me just because I can't touch anything but these eels."

Coral stopped eating when she overheard this.

 _Poor child. She doesn't even trust herself enough to pick up enough food to get full. Well, I'll help her out._

Coral looked over to Shark, who had just been setting back down at their table.

She flashed a message in Aquatic at Shark, which he understood as "Bring a plateful of flame-resistant fish to Peril".

Peril nearly jumped up in shock when a plateful of fish was set down in front of her, as she was munching on one of the Fire Eels without much interest.

"A gift from her majesty," said Shark, before he returned to his seat with a low grumble of annoyance.

"What's got under his scales?" Glory muttered, then went back to cracking open another crab with the tool Coral had given Clay. "Hmph," she grunted. "Nice talking to you too, Commander Grouch."

"My mum must've told him to do it," Tsunami said, taking her jaws away from the tuna she'd been munching on. "From the talk I've heard about him, he's not the kind of SeaWing who is nice to non-Wings out of his own free will."

"At least he did it," Sunny said. "He's got a heart somewhere in there."

"Any dragon can follow orders," Kestrel interrupted. "That doesn't make them good or bad. By your logic, that would mean my daughter and I aren't good dragons just because we've done horrible things in our lives by simply following orders."

Peril seemed to ignore them. For a minute, she just stared at the largest fish on the other coral plate that had been brought to her, as if she was trying to figure out what it was.

"That's a tuna, Peril," she heard Tsunami say. "I've already eaten two of them myself. You have to be careful with the bones, but it's the best thing I've eaten in years."

"Don't say that around Clay, he might just take them before Peril gets any for herself!" Glory laughed.

"I'd never do such a thing!" Clay defended himself. "Especially not to Peril!"

"He's the only one who went to check on her, after the insults. Don't be mean, Glory," Sunny complied, looking at her guiltily before nibbling on a small shark.

"We all were, except Clay." Starflight continued, swinging a large catfish through the air in his talons. "We all should have gone to check on Peril when they upset her. Even I feel guilty for not being any help."

Clay kept watching the catfish in Starflight's talons, his stomach grumbling madly.

"Where can I find one of those Starflight? It's huge!"

"Have you not eaten enough yet Clay?" Glory complained. "You're on your third plateful now."

"So." He wanted to pounce at Starflight and take the huge fish, but he thought against it. _I can't act like I usually do here, it would be wrong to. But pouncing on Starflight for that food means everything to me right now._

"If you're thinking about pouncing on me Clay, I must advise against it," Starflight acclaimed, looking at him with a glare.

"Clay, here." Tsunami threw a catfish towards Clay, and he caught it in his talons standing on his hind legs. Looking at it, he could see it was larger than Starflight's and ate it in one bite. Just seeing how much he enjoyed it was all the thanks Tsunami needed. Tsunami giggled again. "Honestly Clay. We'll know where all our leftovers have gone with you around."

"Is that a flaw of mine? I can't help it. I just _love_ food." He subsequently left the table to casually fill his plate with another dozen fish. "I've never tasted something this good in a long time."

Some of the SeaWings had begun watching the spectacle that was Clay, always going back to the buffet to get more food. They had never seen a dragon eat so much in one setting. Then again, they've never seen a MudWing either.

"You do realize Catfish bones are sharp, and there's not a lot of meat on their bodies?" Tsunami stated. "No wonder you have a dozen more fish."

"Oh," Clay responded without much thought. "Well, it all tastes so good, and I don't think her majesty minds me going back for seconds."

"Seconds?!" Sunny screeched. "More like fifths!"

"Tsunami, dear, can you come over here for a minute to meet your sisters and brothers?" Coral suddenly asked.

Tsunami knew she couldn't just decline her mother's request, especially not in front of all her fellow SeaWings, and she wasn't worried about her food disappearing (probably into Clay's stomach), so she walked over to the table where her mother, Commander Shark, and her siblings were feasting.

"So. Where shall we start?" Tsunami did not really care who she was introduced to first, she just wanted to get back to being with her friends.

When all family members had been introduced, with of course a boring speech everytime from her mother, time grew to night and everyone started to head back to their dwellings for roosting. Tsunami was only glad to be back with her friends, just to be away from her boring old mother. She would sleep with a painful head now, knowing the comfort of her friends will easily help her forget what exactly happened today.


	12. Chapter 11: A Celebration to Remember

**Author's note:** Well, this was a tough chapter to write. Anyone that reads it all the way to the end will see why I say that. (Note: This was co-written by mikey1393drago.)

* * *

 **Chapter 11:  
A Celebration to Remember**

"Where is her majesty?" a female SandWing dragonet asked. "It's never been like her to be late to her own hatching day celebration."

"She's probably making sure she looks as great as possible," said another, this time a male adult IceWing. "You know Blaze. As vain as she is, she'd never allow herself to show up at anything celebrating her if she doesn't think she looks perfect."

"Some way to talk about your future queen," another SandWing said with a glare.

"Not my queen. I'll only serve Queen Glacier."

"I'm sure Queen Blaze will remember that when you are living on land she gave you and your queen after the war is over," said another female SandWing. She flicked her barbed tail in annoyance at the IceWing, but she did not strike him since they were all on the same side in this stupid war.

"Why doesn't Blaze just hire an assassin to knock off her sisters so she can become queen by default?" a female IceWing complained. "I mean, we already know Burn and Morrowseer tried that on her during the battle against Blister's army. It's time she stops thinking we can do everything to beat her sisters in this war. I would bet anything there are assassins out there that would love to cut Burn and Blister's throats for the right price."

"And your so-called queen has enough treasure to pay that price," said yet another IceWing. "Why doesn't she just do it already? It's been twenty-one years and we're no closer to ending this war now than we ever were then."

"Her majesty would never resort to fratricide, not even to end a war where dragons are dying to support her everyday. She's not the scumbag her sisters are."

"I suppose you're right," the first IceWing sighed. "Better lazy and vain than a mastermind and scumbag."

The SandWings nearly dropped their cups upon hearing those words. They normally didn't drink tea like Blaze, but they were doing it this one time to honor her. It was her hatching day celebration after all, so how could they not be more like their leader for one day out of the year?

"'Lazy'!" the second SandWing screeched. She almost wanted to stab him with her venomous tail now. How dare he speak that way about Blaze? "Nobody can deny she is vain, but if you really knew her, you'd know she is anything but lazy. I've seen some of you IceWings sitting around on your tails more in the past twenty-one years than I've seen Blaze do in her entire life."

The sudden intrusion of Queen Glacier's powerful voice silenced all of them. "That is enough out of all of you. Save your childish debates for another time. We are here to celebrate Blaze's birth, not act like dragonets. Blaze would not feel respected if you could hear all your squabbling. We're all adults here aren't we?"

The responsible SandWings and IceWings bowed their heads in shame and let their wings droop.

"That is better." Glacier smiled a little. "Now not another negative word out of any of you for the rest of this evening or I'll have to explain to Blaze why you couldn't attend her little party so suddenly! She may not be pleased with me either, but I won't tolerate this from any of you when you're all supposed to be happy and celebrating. Don't you all do enough fighting already as it is? I would think you dragons would want a break from it, even if only for one evening."

Glacier resumed drinking her tea. She hadn't liked it too much when Blaze first introduced it to her tribe, as IceWings did not like eating or drinking anything warm, but then they had started chilling the tea with ice and that helped them enjoy it much more. Of course some still complained about how plain it tasted, like they were drinking "bitter and almost tasteless ice water".

The IceWing queen had always liked it though, for she had a secret ingredient none of her fellow IceWings knew of that gave Blaze's tea a lot more flavor. She didn't intend to tell them what it was either! She only had enough for herself.

* * *

"Onyx, please dear, will you come out from behind there already?" Blaze complained, for her niece was not coming out from behind the room divider that she'd been apparently getting dressed behind for at least ten minutes. "It's not really that bad is it?"

"I don't want the other dragons to see me wearing this!" Onyx whined from behind the room divider, which was decorated in a way that reminded them of their desert homeland they and their fellow SandWings had been driven out of when Burn took over their late mother's stronghold. "I'd feel so silly!"

"Oh, nonsense Onyx," Blaze said calmly. "They won't taunt you, especially not with Queen Glacier watching over them all. Besides, we're going to be late to my celebration if you don't show yourself soon. I couldn't possibly go there without you. You're the only family I have here."

"Fine!" Onyx said, then stepped out from behind the room divider to reveal she was wearing a fur coat like the one Blaze wore, as well as various trinkets ranging from golden earrings to brass and gold bracelets. Blaze had used an ink unique to to the Ice Kingdom to decorate her niece's face; her eyelids were a purplish-blue color, and her talons had been painted a color best described as being halfway between red-orange and pink.

While Onyx felt ridiculous about how her aunt had made her dress, Blaze thought she looked stunning, and would have even male IceWings the same age as her tripping over each other to get to Onyx. Onyx however thought any boys that saw her would be scared away by her design, but she wouldn't say that out loud. She knew better than to offend her aunt like that. Blaze was the only family she could trust after all.

"Oh, you look amazing," Blaze cooed. "As I told you before, you'll have boys tripping over each other to see you! Now let us hurry along to my celebration so everyone can see us. They're probably getting anxious for us to arrive. I'd promised we'd be there before Quicksand and his assistant were done preparing the meal for everyone."

"What assistant?" Onyx asked.

"Oh, just one of our SandWings. He volunteered last minute to help Quicksand prepare the meal. I'd assume he felt bad for Quicksand having to always prepare the meals by himself in the past. But truth be told, I think Quicksand loved the task regardless of no-one ever assisting him before. Anyhow, let us go to the main chamber so we can grace everyone with our presence."

 _So I can die of embarrassment, you mean,_ Onyx thought miserably.

* * *

"So what is your name, stranger?" Quicksand asked his assistant as they worked to finish the meal. "I don't recall her majesty or anyone else mentioning it, and I've not seen you before."

"That's because I didn't say my name before," the SandWing said, as he worked on some sort of, he presumed, cake. He shrugged. "Nobody asked, so I didn't need to."

Quicksand smiled. "Well I'd like to know now. Most SandWings aren't very talkative except to those they know well. Don't let it bother you too much."

"I could tell," he whispered. "Well, since you actually asked, my name is Six-Claws. I suppose I should be grateful one of you here bothered to ask my name after all these years." Secretly, however, he was thinking, _Hmm. If only you knew sooner fool. My first time here will be my last. That is why nobody knows my name._

 _Blister will be very pleased when she hears her plan to poison Blaze worked perfectly,_ thought Six-Claws. _I just need to get Quicksand out of the kitchen long enough to introduce her venom into the cake batter. Blister specifically told me to mix her venom into something sweet so Blaze won't taste it and stop before she has taken in a fatal dose. I just wish she'd given me a plan to get Blaze's cook out of the kitchen so I can go through with her plan!_

But Six-Claws was smart, even for a SandWing. An idea was beginning to form in his mind. Six-Claws always said he was more dangerous than Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings when he began thinking; it meant somebody would die. Soon as his plan was made out, Six-Claws knew there was no way Blaze would live to see another sunrise. Onyx too, if he was lucky. He recalled Blister instructing him to take Onyx out of the picture too if he could, and that she'd pay him twice as much if he successfully assassinated both Blaze and Onyx.

"Oh!" Six-Claws groaned in frustration. _I'm a great actor. He'll fall for this, no doubt._ "Drat!"

Quicksand blinked with confusion.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I forgot to get the flour for this cake you wanted me to make for her majesty," Six-Claws lied. He wasn't that stupid. "Thank the moons I haven't started baking it yet or we'd be late to her party."

"It's in the storage room next to here. I'll be right back with the flour," Quicksand added as he left the makeshift kitchen.

"Fool," Six-Claws whispered. "You just got your future queen killed. I'll be sure to thank you."

Six-Claws opened up the pouch around his neck and took out the diamond vial which contained Blister's venom. He unsealed the cap and without any hesitation, he poured all of it into the cake batter and quickly stirred it up with the spatula so the scent was masked by all the ingredients. To further cover for himself, Six-Claws tossed a random old bag of flower he knew Quicksand hadn't seen under the table before.

"Back," he heard Quicksand say.

 _Not a moment too soon,_ Six-Claws thought.

"Here's the flour."

Six-Claws nervously tapped a foot on the floor. "Um. Yeah. About that. While you were gone, I found that bag of flour there. It had just enough for our batter. I mixed it in while you were looking in the storage room." He paused. "Sorry."

"No, no. It's fine. I should have looked around here for a bag of flour before I went to the other room."

 _You don't even know how right you are!_ Six-Claws tried not to grin wickedly. _If you had considered that, you wouldn't have sealed Blaze and Onyx's fate by leaving me alone here to mix poison into the cake batter._ "I suppose. This cake mix should be ready for the oven now?"

Quicksand's "oven" was merely a square object made from bricks with over a space in the floor where a fire could be lit. He would slide the pan into his oven and check it again after three-quarters of an hour. By that time, all the non-sweet food that would be served at Blaze's celebration would be ready, and they could transport it all to the chamber where Quicksand believed some dragons were already waiting, in order to hand out the food ready for the tables and consumers.

"So…Now what are we going to do while the cake is baking?" Six-Claws asked, to keep up this ruse. He had made it known that he wasn't the greatest cook but he wanted to learn, so now he was stuck here until his chance to escape arose when Blaze began choking to death.

Six-Claws would want to stay there so badly to make sure Blaze, and possibly Onyx too, died from Blister's venom, but he knew that if things went as planned, he would immediately be suspected by the IceWings and SandWings as the culprit, seeing as he'd probably come across as a little too mysterious in the few days he'd been residing at the stronghold.

* * *

"It's about time they got everything around," muttered an IceWing whose stomach had been growling for the past twenty minutes. "I was about to start eating ice to hold me over. Why in three moons did they not deliver the desserts sooner? It's been forty-five minutes since I ate."

"You ever baked?" a SandWing said, to which the IceWing shook his head. "Then shut up. Besides, they already worked their tails off to prepare this meal for us."

 _You mean_ I _worked hard to make it so you all watch Blaze choke to death,_ Six-Claws uttered in his mind.

"Please set up the cake on this table here," Queen Glacier bellowed from her throne. Six-Claws took note of the four IceWing guards standing on either side of her. There was no chance of assassinating her unless she also ate the cake,he realized. She glared at Six-Claws, as if him being new to culinary meant he deserved such treatment. "Once Blaze has spoken, we will enjoy the desserts our cooks also prepared for us, and later comes a surprise that myself and other members of the First Circle planned for several days prior." Glacier smiled when she noticed the excited look in Blaze's eye. "I'm sure she will love the presents we got around for her," she added. "It was quite the task finding everything. We had to send letters far away as a tribe of neutral SandWings in the southernmost region of the Sand Kingdom and the RainWing tribe to find some of our gifts, but I think it will please Blaze, and that is all that matters." Glacier paused. "Now that our stomachs are full, without further ado, put your talons together for the hatching day girl! Princess Blaze of the SandWings!"

 _Must she really introduce her like that every year?_ thought an IceWing. _We've been through this four twenty-one years. Do we really need you to introduce who Blaze is now? I don't think any newborn dragonets care who she is. They're just here for the food and to see how gaudy Blaze's outfits are._

Of course the IceWing dragonets didn't feel that way about Blaze's outfits; if anything, they thought they were pretty. Especially the girl dragonets; the boys usually ended up covering their eyes in embarrassment when they saw how silly-looking Blaze's outfits were every year.

Blaze had intended to fly up onto an ice pillar in the middle of the throne room to give her speech, since Glacier wouldn't let her get away with this any other time of the year, but then she noticed the reaction of most of the males in the audience, be they young or old, SandWing or IceWing.

"Boys, boys!" Blaze could see the male dragons in question covering their eyes in embarrassment. Brushing past them only made their scales tingle enough to look at her. "Why are we embarrassed? I'm sure you've seen females dress up for you before."

Blaze giggled when she saw the IceWings' cheeks becoming a purple hue. She'd forgotten they had cold blood that looked like a purplish-blue, not the usual red color of other, warm-blooded Pyrrhian dragons, so it was even funnier to see them blushing this odd hue rather than red to show their embarrassment.

"Um," one of these males began, his voice shaking, and definitely not because of the cold climate, "not really, your majesty."

 _Your majesty?_ Blaze suppressed a laugh. _That's a first, one of these IceWings calling me 'your majesty'. I must really be getting under their skin now. But I like it. They should respect me more than they do. She sometimes felt that Glacier was the only one of them who had any amount of respect for her. Keep it up boys. You're looking at the next SandWing queen._

 _Oh, I knew she would get like this around them!_ Onyx thought. She threw her wings over her eyes with embarrassment and felt her cheeks becoming warm in spite of the cold climate. It's as though she could still see her aunt teasing these males even with her eyes covered. _Why is she always so attracted to younger males? Or even tease them like she does every time she sees them?_

Onyx uncovered one eye just a tiny bit to see if Blaze had stopped, but sure enough she hadn't. Blaze shook her hips as she walked between some of the males, prompting her niece to shield her eyes again.

 _I'll never forget that! She's 30-years old and is down there acting like a dragon half her age!_

Blaze wrapped an arm around one of the IceWing males, who responded by sitting straight up in alarm, his stare one of shock when he realized she was stroking his belly in a seductive manner with her tail.

"You IceWing boys are so nervous," she laughed. "I thought you'd all be used to me after all these years."

 _Yeah, well, you didn't act like this until only five years ago,_ Glacier thought with a low chuckle. _They haven't had time to get used to your extravagant ways of dressing…or shaking your rear end around them?_ Even Glacier didn't know what to say about that.

The IceWing queen stood up from her throne.

"That's enough of that, Blaze," she declared. "Having fun is good and all, but you can't be flirting with all our soldiers. Plus the food's here, and we can't let it all get cold before we feast."

"Sounds like a good idea to me!" Onyx piped up. _Anything to stop my aunt from shaking her tail!_ "Where should my aunt and I sit?"

Glacier smiled. "You'll sit by me, of course. The hatchday girl always sits by the queen's side."

 _Get on with the feast already!_ Six-Claws thought with anger. I _want to see one of them choke to death already so I can get out of this dump and report back to Blister with good news, and more importantly, get my reward for killing Blaze when all her other assassins failed._

"Everyone, dig in!" Glacier concluded. "Once our hatchday girl has gotten what she wants of course."

 _Hatchday 'girl'?_ thought Onyx. _Is she still talking about my aunt?_

Blaze returned a minute later with another plateful of food ranging from grilled ocean Pollock wrapped with kelp to a few oysters to a piece of some kind of shark. She'd gotten a bit hungry again waiting for the cake to arrive. A SandWing willingly eating so much seafood was a sight to behold, that was for sure, but it wasn't like Blaze and her soldiers had much choice if they were to live here in the Ice Kingdom until the war was over. Blister would never let them return to the Sand Kingdom as long as she lived, so they'd had no other choice but to adjust to the diet of IceWings or face starving to death.

"When can I get some of that cake?" Onyx asked, pointing at the waiter dragon bringing the whole thing over.

"Once it has been brought to our table. Why not try another grape?" Blaze offered.

Onyx grinned. "But! I have a sweet tooth!" The moment the plate of cake was positioned perfectly on the table, Onyx could not wait a second to cut a slice for herself.

"Wow!" Blaze exclaimed. "You really wanted that slice of cake!"

"You bet!" Onyx was there and back with a slice of the cake before Blaze could even blink.

 _NO!_ Six-Claws screamed in his mind. _Blaze was supposed to get the first slice! Now she'll know it's poisoned and won't even touch it! But how I am gonna stop that brat from eating it? Tell her 'Don't, that cake's secret ingredient is SandWing venom'? No chance! Blister wanted me to poison Blaze!_ He tried not to growl. _She's going to have my head for this!There's no way Blaze will be poisoned now!_

"Hmm. It looked different than last year's cake did," Blaze remarked. "Quicksand must've used a different mix."

 _You bet he did! It's called poison mix! Now just take one bite already, Onyx!_

It was difficult for Six-Claws to hide how anxious he was as Onyx stabbed her fork, crafted from a crab claw, into the cake and began to raise it to her jaws. Then it disappeared into her mouth, and Six-Claws fought back the urge to scream in excitement when he heard Onyx swallowing the first bite.

 _Time to get out of here, he thought. They'll suspect me soon as she—_

 _What?_ Onyx thought.

She didn't understand why her throat was feeling so tight, why she was sweating so hard, or why she suddenly found it hard to breath. Onyx dropped her fork down on the table, much to Blaze's shock.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, a nervous look immediately replacing her previously happy look.

Onyx coughed.

Glacier stopped eating, as did the other dragons one-by-one, and she stood up from her throne.

"Did she swallow something whole?" she asked.

"No!" Blaze cried. "All she did was take one bite of that cake!"

Onyx was gagging now.

"C…Can't…"

"Can't what?!" Blaze screeched.

"B-B…Brea...the…"

"SHE CAN'T BREATHE?!" Blaze screamed. "SOMEBODY! HELP!"

Glacier immediately knocked the entire cake off the table.

"Guards! Remove that cake this instance! Someone has poisoned it!"

Glacier's instant action was to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on Onyx.

"Where is the strange SandWing?!" an IceWing roared suddenly.

"That's what it is! SandWing venom!" a SandWing soldier bellowed. "That 'strange SandWing' mixed his venom into the cake batter when he was helping Quicksand! That's the only explanation for this!"

"HEALERS!" Glacier commanded. "Get your treatment for SandWing venom right away! Bring the Brightsting Cactus juice!"

"N…N…No…" Onyx gasped after the piece of cake flew from her mouth and onto the icy floor. "…u….use…"

"You're not dying on us!" Glacier snapped. "Just hang on! The healers, they can treat you!"

Blaze was hysterical.

"Onyx! No! Please! I can't lose you! You're all I have!"

"A…unt…B...aze…" she coughed. "L…ve…ou…"

"ONYX!" Blaze screamed. She shoved Glacier out of the way when her niece's head thudded against the table and her wheezing stopped. "WHERE ARE THE HEALERS?!"

"Damn it hurry!" Glacier demanded.

"Onyx…"

Blaze's tears dripped from her snout onto her niece's chest like a waterfall.

Blaze heard one of her generals commanding his fellow soldiers: "Someone find that traitorous SandWing! Don't let him make it out alive!"

"Shatter him with your frostbreath!" an IceWing general ordered.

"Make the bastard that did this suffer!"

"No! Onyx!" Blaze sobbed. "Please…come back…"

Glacier gently put a talon on her friend's shoulder.

"She's gone," she declared sadly. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly, Glacier's expression became dark.

If Blaze had any scars, Glacier would have sworn she was looking at Blister in this moment, when she saw the furious expression Blaze now bared.

She snarled like a monster and gnashed her teeth together as if she were ripping into prey.

"I'll find whoever did this…he'll…he'll find out what it feels like to not be able to breathe when I _rip out his throat_!" She tore off her outfit, fur coat and all, and stood up in a rage. "I don't know who did this or who you're working for….but I'll find you, and when I do…I'll send you to Hell myself!" Before Blaze could even roar in anger, her world went black.

"Blaze…I'm so sorry…" Glacier whispered. The way Blaze's deadly tail was thrashing around, she needed to keep her distance or do something to stop it from moving. Her only option was to strike Blaze on the back of the head to dally her. "Bas...tard!" Blaze hissed groggily when she tried to recover from the sudden attack. Her vision went blurry, and she lost consciousness.

"There's no signs of that strange SandWing anywhere!"

"He's already escaped!"

"Quicksand?! Tell me who did this! Now!" Glacier roared suddenly.

"H…his name…Six Claws!" Quicksand stammered.

Glacier glared down furiously at him. "If I find out you are covering for him, I swear you'll know what it's like to not breathe!"

"I-I swear, I… I didn't know he...he was an assassin!"

"Then why do you assume he is an assassin if you didn't know?!" Glacier growled. She tackled Quicksand to the ground, ready to stab him with her spear. Her left talons forcibly pressed down on his throat. "You'd better tell me everything! NOW!" She only released his throat so he could speak.

"You know a-all I know! Nobody here knew his name until he… he told me when I asked!"

Queen Glacier lowered her head dangerously close to Quicksand darkly breathing her ice cold breath through her nostrils and asked, "When could he have poisoned the cake then? You were there with him the whole time. Weren't you?"

"I…I left him for a brief moment to get flour for the cake…" Quicksand whimpered. "When I came back, he'd claimed to have found just enough and mixed it into the batter. I should've suspected he was lying, that he'd already mixed flower into the batter…"

"You're damn right you should have!" She looked to her guards. "Guards! Hold him against the wall!" Two IceWing guards grabbed him by the arms and held him against the wall with his torso visible to their queen. She lashed out with her whip-like tail with force, striking Quicksand's soft belly. "How could you leave a complete stranger manning the food!" She struck at him again, this time lashing his chest. "You are as much responsible for Onyx's death as that bloody SandWing assassin is!" She lashed him a final time across his exposed neck, and the guards dropped him to the floor in agony and tears.

"FIND HIM!" she loudly bellowed at other guards just standing around, causing them to instantly search every possible area the assassin could be hiding at. "Once you find him, bring him to me!" she bellowed once again. "I want to lash him till his last breaths!" Glacier sadly glanced at Onyx's motionless corpse, before a younger SandWing suddenly appeared bowing low in respect.

"Queen Glacier, your majesty," the female SandWing complied.

"You may speak!" She was still sourly enraged with the death of Onyx as she looked down at the SandWing before her, and would not calm down anytime soon. The younger SandWing raised her head. "I am Queen Blaze's assassin Cobra, able to track down the most minuscule scent I smell. May I ask you for a few of your finest soldiers, to search for his very location I will lead them to?"

Queen Glacier instantly glares at the three guards standing at attention behind her. "You three! Go with Cobra!" She turned to another as the three saluted her and headed off with Cobra in search of Six-Claws. "And you there! Take Quicksand to the dungeon!"

"Right away your majesty!" He saluted his queen before dragging Quicksand by his tail.

"No! Please! I beg of you!" He innocently pleaded, his claws out trying to grip the floor as they simply scraped over its icy surface without much effort. The areas where he'd been lashed were clearly visible for all to see whenever he tried to struggle.

"Silence!" She motioned for two more guards to take Quicksand with the first, and once they reached him bound his limbs, wings, tail and snout with metal chain. Queen Glacier must now bury one of her most favourite SandWing allies and keep Blaze under constant watch in case the assassin came back for her again


	13. Chapter 12: Princess Murders!

**Chapter 12:  
Princess Murders?!**

Tsunami hissed when she felt someone prodding her in the side, when she was trying to get some much-needed sleep.

"What is it?" she snapped, expecting it to be one of her friends. But when her eyes cracked open, she saw it was none of them. It was Aquamarine again. "Sorry. I thought you were Starflight. He likes to bother us with nonsense when we're trying to sleep."

"No worries," whispered Aquamarine. "I need you to come with me, though. What I need to tell you needs to be said in private. Nobody can know I am going to tell you this, not even your friends, and especially not our mother. If she knows I've been telling you so much of our history already, she'd probably lock me away in the dungeon for a week."

"But where can we speak so others won't listen in?"

"There's one place. The island to the south of here where mother held the feast for you and your friends. Nobody ever goes there except for special occasions. They'd never suspect us if we go now, while everyone else is sleeping. They'll never even know we left. But just to be safe, we'll both catch a fish so we have an alibi, in case we are caught coming back."

 _What could it be she's going to tell me that she doesn't want even my friends to hear?_ Tsunami wondered as they left the summer palace, and spread their wings to fly to the abandoned island.

* * *

"Let's stay out of sight," Aquamarine said as she and Tsunami landed on the island. "You never know if Blister has any of her spies lurking around to report suspicious occurrences back to her or mother."

She and Tsunami sat down behind a boulder where Aquamarine was sure nobody would see them.

"So," said Tsunami, "what was it you wanted to tell me that you don't want anyone to hear?"

Aquamarine's expression became serious.

"You, Anemone, a handful of eggs, and myself are the last heirs to our mother," she said.

"What? Why?"

"We don't know for sure, but someone has been killing our sisters, those about to hatch, just hatched, and hatched for some time, for the past nine years," Aquamarine continued. "In total, twelve of our sisters have been killed, and nobody knows why. There are always guards at the only door into the royal hatchery, so it makes no sense how an assassin could get in to our future sisters."

"When did these killings begin, exactly?"

"Nine years ago, as I said. It was after Orca had challenged our mother for the throne. She lost, and was killed, but mother hadn't meant to. Orca ran into the narwhal horn our mother has tied on the end of her tail. Nobody understands what she meant by her last words." Aquamarine stopped. She felt a chill run up her spine.

"What were they?" Tsunami asked. "Her last words."

It took Aquamarine a moment to gather enough courage to repeat her sister's dying words.

"I did this all wrong. You're going to rule forever, aren't you, Mother?...You should thank me...no one can stop you now." Aquamarine paused. "As I said, not even mother understood what she meant. She was always the mysterious one. She had more of an obsession with art than mother, even. Before she died, Orca made a marble statue in her image and donated it to the royal hatchery as a centerpiece. We don't really understand why she did that either, but mother thought it was a nice gesture, so she accepted it. But after their fight, it seems more like an early apology for the fight they would get into in the future."

"What else happened? During her and mother's fight, I mean."

"Well, I remember that everyone had been shocked when she almost killed mother. She wasn't much older than any of your friends when she challenged her to a fight for the throne, so everyone was amazed and shocked at the same time when she nearly killed her. If mother hadn't had that narwhal horn tied to her tail, I don't think we'd have the same queen we do now. It made all the difference in their fight, even if only by accident. Mother had only wanted to push Orca away so she could get up, not kill her.

"That is why mother wrote _The Tragedy of Orca_ , as a tribute and an apology to her daughter for ending her life when she was so young," Aquamarine went on. "All copies of the scroll begin with a brief dedication to Orca that states 'In memory of Princess Orca, my eldest daughter. I'm sorry for what happened.' below a painting of Orca included in all copies of the story. There are several copies of it and The Lost Princess that are available in the library for everyone to read. Mother doesn't let them leave the library, no matter what. She keeps guards there constantly, as well as the librarian, just to make sure of that. I believe they're the original copies of her stories, and that's why she doesn't want them to ever leave the library."

Tsunami blinked. She couldn't believe all this. Most of her sisters were dead and still dying, and nobody could find out why! It was all too much for Tsunami to take in at once, and she nearly fainted. Aquamarine helped her calm down.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you all this," she said miserably. "It was too much for you to handle."

"No. I needed to know. It's part of my family we're talking about." Tsunami paused for a moment to think this over, a contrast to her typical reckless behavior. "Maybe you and I can help solve why this is happening."

Aquamarine didn't understand. "You and me? How? Nobody has been able to solve this mystery in the past nine years. How would the two of us solve it now? It should be impossible for a potential assassin to get into the royal hatchery, as I said before. There are always trusted guards there, and mother intentionally designed it so the only entrance was the one they guarded."

"Well the guards did a good job when I was taken from the royal hatchery," Tsunami muttered. "From what I heard Webs say to Kestrel and Dune when Clay and I always used to eavesdrop on them, it sounds as if he just walked right in the hatchery and took me as an egg without having to put up a fight."

"I wouldn't take his word for it."

"Whyever not?"

"Mother says Webs was always a bit of a liar. Someone that we shouldn't ever take his word for. Which if he stole your egg from the royal hatchery, at least some of it must be true."

"But he did it for a good cause!" Tsunami said. "A cause which he died for…that's how much he wanted to end this war. He gave his life to save one of his fellow Talons of Peace. Kestrel, the SkyWing with us who doesn't have firescales, is the last of our guardians."

Aquamarine immediately shrank back. "I'm sorry, Tsunami. I didn't know. It's just mother plants these beliefs into our head when we're young. Sometimes it's hard to know what is really true and what is a lie when it's all you know growing up. I always thought it was odd I got this gut feeling part of what mother always told us wasn't true, but I could never accuse her of lying. She's our mother and the queen. Her daughters would have been deemed liars long before she ever is."

"And she's still our mother at the end of the day," Tsunami added in a whisper. "She only wanted to do she thought what was right for all of you."

"That is right," said a voice that was not Aquamarine's, provoking her and Tsunami to nearly jump out of their skins.

"Mother?!" they gasped together.

Queen Coral descended over the boulder they'd thought would be a perfect place to hide. She landed before them, towering over her daughters like a giantess, for they were bowing down submissively.

"I did only want what is best for them. That is why I did not want you, Aquamarine, telling your younger sisters about what happened to Orca, or that so many of their sisters had died in the past nine years. If they really did want to find out about Orca, they can just read _The Tragedy of Orca_. It doesn't get any more true than that. As for telling Tsunami that her, you, Anemone, and a handful of eggs are the only heirs to my throne left…you had no right doing that. I would have told them if something suspicious happened to them."

"But Tsunami needed to know so she can protect herself from whoever is killing our sisters!" Aquamarine protested.

"That is not your decision to make," Coral sighed. "Did you ever stop to think that now Tsunami is going to be living in fear as long as we make her stay here? Do you really want that for your sister?"

"But her friends can protect her! Peril would make sure anyone that hurts her doesn't do it again."

Coral sat down. "That's not the point, Aquamarine. I have all the guards my daughters could ever ask for watching over them, and it's done no good against whoever has been murdering them. Furthermore, Tsunami's friends can't access the Deep Palace. Only SeaWings can. You know that as well as I do. It's not going to stop until we catch this assassin."

"That is why I am here," another female voice said.

 _Blister!_ Tsunami's mind screamed.

"Your mother didn't just bring me here so I could have a vacation home," Blister continued. "She'd told me that someone is killing off her daughters. I know you've probably heard I'm a terrible dragon, but when my dear friend Coral told me her daughters had been dying for almost a decade and nobody could find out why, I thought I would help her out. I imagined myself in her talons, losing my daughters who I know I'd love so much."

 _But you don't have any children,_ Tsunami thought. _No male would want to sleep with someone that has a habit of mounting her victims' heads on a wall. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to be looking at in the bedroom of your potential mate._

"Thank you, Blister, but I don't appreciate you barging in. Aquamarine here has told Tsunami things I'd rather she not have." Blister blinked at this news, then glared at Aquamarine. Aquamarine immediately felt uneasy about being the target of Blister's glare. "Tsunami now knows what has been happening to my daughters ever since Orca died. As you know from one of our council meetings, Blister, I didn't want my daughters ever finding out unless for their own safety. I don't want them living in fear, or trying to run away from my kingdom to escape some assassin."

"What do you wish for me to do with her?" Blister asked. Tsunami and Aquamarine felt uncomfortable when they saw the glare Blister had on her face. Tsunami had no doubts that Aquamarine also knew how brutal and sadistic Blister could be, but she wondered if their mother knew. She doubted Blister ever talked about her collection of victims' heads on her wall around their mother.

Coral sighed. "Nothing. I will decide an appropriate punishment for Aquamarine later." Blister frowned, but Tsunami was relieved. The last thing she'd wanted was that sadist SandWing in charge of punishing Aquamarine. "I know what you're probably thinking Blister, but this is my daughter, not some random SeaWing that was caught stealing. You're my ally and my friend, that's true, but it would be wrong for anyone but me to hand out punishment to my daughters. I'm sure you understand."

 _Yes, I do,_ Blister thought. _Good for her. She's fortunate anyway that I've lost my deadly tail because of that battle in the Ice Kingdom a few days ago_. Blister's tail still hurt tremendously. Even Coral's best healers hadn't been able to quell her pain with the medicine they have at their disposal. Not even their unique pain medicine, which was a mixture of diluted jellyfish venom and shark blood. _I'd make sure Aquamarine never instills fear in the hearts of your younger daughters again, and you'd never suspect it was me with that assassin on the loose._

"Aquamarine," Coral said harshly. "Go back to the Deep Palace right now and wait for me there in your room. Am I clear?"

"Yes, mother," Aquamarine whispered shamefully. She sensed Blister was trying not to laugh at her as she walked past her superiors. "I am sorry."

"I'll consider your apology, but it will be hard to forgive you for going against my word. I am the queen and not honoring my word is equivalent to breaking my kingdom's laws. You're my eldest child, so you should know that by now."

"Yes, mother." Aquamarine bowed her head in shame and dove into water. She saw the two guards waiting for her and knew she had no choice but to go back to the Deep Palace. Something told her these two already knew where her mother wanted her to go.

Blister stepped forward again.

"Has your daughter let you know that she and some of her little group are the dragonets mentioned in that silly prophecy?" Blister asked.

"No, she hasn't," said Coral. "However, what prophecy do you speak of?"

"The NightWings' prophecy. The one that says how the war can be ended." Blister cleared her throat and began reciting it:

"When the war has lasted twenty years…

The dragonets will come.

When the land is soaked in blood and tears…

The dragonets will come.

"Find the SeaWing egg of deepest blue

Wings of night shall come to you.

The largest egg in the mountain high

will give you the wings of sky.

"For wings of earth, search through the mud

for an egg the color of dragon blood.

And hidden alone from the rival queens,

a SandWing egg awaits unseen.

"Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn,

two shall die and one shall learn

if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher,

she'll have the power of wings of fire.

"Five eggs to hatch on the brightest night,

five dragons born to end the fight.

Darkness will rise to bring the light.

The dragonets are coming..."

"Oh, that old poem," Coral muttered. "I always thought it was nonsense."

"It's _not_ nonsense," Blister said, suppressing a growl. "It came true when Clay, Starflight, Sunny, and your daughter hatched. There would have been a SkyWing that hatched with them, but the egg was destroyed when my sister, Burn, murdered the IceWing who was supposed to deliver it to the Talons of Peace. They had to replace the destroyed SkyWing egg with a RainWing egg, and that egg became Glory."

Coral stared hard at her ally.

"I for one don't believe in prophecies," she finally said. "If it really is true, why don't you tell me how my daughter and her friends are going to end this war and choose an heir to your mother's throne? They're barely adults yet, for moons' sake."

"All I can tell you is they will," Blister said ominously. "Believe me. The Dragonet Prophecy is more than some silly fairy tale or a scary story told to frighten dragonets. It is the real thing and it will come true." She paused. "My sisters Burn and Blaze _will_ die and _I_ will become the new SandWing queen. There's no way 'one shall learn if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher' refers to either of them. The only thing Blaze knows how to lead is younger males to her bed." Coral cleared her throat and glared at Blister. She didn't appreciate such vulgar talk in her kingdom. "And Burn, she'd be a horrible leader. That leaves me. You know as well as I do I'd make the best heir to our mother's throne. That is why we must win this war, Coral."

 _You give a good speech,_ Tsunami thought. _But not good enough for me. You didn't convince me you'd make a better queen than Blaze, and I haven't even met her yet._

"I don't know, Blister," sighed Coral. "Where did this prophecy come from?"

"The NightWings."Then Blister thought, _I said that already…_

"Oh three moons!" she exclaimed. "You really believe any prophecy the NightWings go around shouting at anyone who is ignorant enough to listen? They have better imaginations than mine. At least the stories I write are based on true events."

"This prophecy _will_ be a true story with time." Blister narrowed her eyes. "Just wait and see, when I'm ruling over the SandWings like I deserve to be. The war will end when the Dragonets of Destiny choose me as the next SandWing queen after Burn and Blaze die."

Blister flapped her wings and flew off for her secondary stronghold across the bay before Coral could debate with her on the subject any further. She didn't even look back at Coral and Tsunami.

Coral looked down at Tsunami.

"She's my friend and all, but three moons, she needs to stop with all this prophecy nonsense," she sighed. "SeaWings don't believe in prophecies. The war will run its course. Now please Tsunami, let's get back to the summer palace so you can be there before you friends wake up. And do me a favor. Don't talk around the kingdom about how you and your friends are part of some false prophecy, am I clear?"

Tsunami said "Yes, mother", but she was thinking, _You're wrong about the prophecy, mother. It_ will _come true. Just you wait and see_


	14. Chapter 13: The Ways of a SeaWing

**Chapter 13:  
The Ways of a SeaWing**

"But I didn't want to go down to the Deep Palace!" Tsunami complained to her mother. "None of my friends can breathe underwater long enough to make it that far!"

"You don't have any reason to worry about that," said Queen Coral. "I only intended to bring you with me. The rest of them can stay at the Summer Palace as long as they wish. Now that the fun's over, it's time I teach you the ways of a SeaWing."

"But I can't just leave my friends!" Tsunami protested. "We've always been together, as long as we've lived."

"They'll still have each other," Coral disagreed. "They can handle a few days without you, and if they really are as good of friends as you've told me, then they'll understand why I am taking you to the Deep Palace. I sense that you wish to learn how to be like all SeaWings, and this is the only way."

"If it means being so far away from everyone I've ever known, then it's not worth it!"

Coral's eyes became wide and her jaw almost dropped.

"That's the kind of attitude Aquamarine grew up having. It's a law of my kingdom that we only trust other SeaWings for many reasons. This is one of them. You just go and become too attached to land-dwelling dragons, and then you either forget the ways of SeaWings…or don't want to ever learn them." Coral paused. "I'm not taking no from you as an answer, Tsunami. It will be good for you to learn all our customs."

Tsunami's next response was planting her rear on the ground, crossing her arms against her chest, and shutting her eyes. A few SeaWings who'd been watching this exchange between their queen and Tsunami began muttering amongst each other.

"I can't believe she's one of Coral's daughters."

"She doesn't act like a future queen should."

"You mean she won't ever be a queen with that attitude."

"Tsunami has a lot to learn if she's ever going to fight her majesty for the throne."

"What a disgrace. She's not proving herself worthy to have been born with the royal patterns under her wings."

Coral spun around.

"I didn't ask any of you for your opinions on this moment!" she screeched. "Now go find something better to do if you do not wish to see what my dungeon looks like! I am having a personal conversation with my daughter. You have no right of eavesdropping on it!"

The five SeaWings vanished in an instant without any argument.

Coral rubbed her head with her hand. "Ugh. I swear everyone here wishes to give me a migraine." She grabbed Tsunami by the wrist and picked her up with barely any effort. "Now come, Tsunami. The Deep Palace awaits."

Tsunami hung limply in her mother's grasp, further showing her disdain towards the idea of leaving her friends.

"I'm not going," she muttered. "My friends are all I need. I've gone this long without knowing how to be a 'proper SeaWing'. What's the point of learning now?"

"If you are going to fight me for my throne one day, you _are_ going to have to learn all of our history and customs," Coral snapped. "Your fellow SeaWings won't accept a queen that knows nothing about the kingdom she is supposed to rule."

Tsunami huffed. "Well…maybe I was wrong. Maybe I don't want to be queen one day. Who says I would be cut out for it?"

"And that is fine. But there is no excuse for any of my daughters not to learn the history and culture of our kingdom."

Clay suddenly approached, his head held submissively towards the ground.

"Your majesty, can I say something?"

"No. This is a family matter and you're not family." She paused. "The truth is, I don't trust MudWings after what they did to us. We were allies at one point during the war, but then they switched sides and joined Burn and the SkyWings after assassinating one of my best generals, Tempest."

Peril almost lost it. She stormed over to them.

"You can't hate Clay for that!" Peril seethed. "He's never even known another MudWing! And Scarlet wanted him dead. You really think he'd want to fight for her? If you do, then you're just as CRAZY AS SCARLET IS!" she shouted.

A collective gasp rose up from some SeaWings that had been going about their business without listening in on Coral's conversation until now.

"You can't just talk to her majesty that way!" a female SeaWing hissed.

"She's not my queen," Peril scoffed. "I've bowed to no queen ever since I abandoned Scarlet. I'll talk to her and any other queen in Pyrrhia however I wish, if they're all hard headed as she is being right now."

"Get that SkyWing out of here!" ordered Commander Shark.

Peril crossed her arms. "Just you try it. I'll teach you how to prepare a new dish at your feasts. I call it _charred SeaWing_!"

The nearest SeaWing screamed when Peril glared at him before trying to grab him on the shoulder. She darted off before any contact was made.

Glory approached her. "Peril. There's such a thing as too far. You're beyond that. We're guests here. You can't just threaten to barbecue every dragon you come across."

Sunny perched on Glory's shoulders.

"She's right," she said. "Are you trying to get us all kicked out of here and never have any chance of seeing Tsunami again?"

Starflight only stared at everyone. He was too afraid of Peril to say anything.

Coral let go of Tsunami, then towered over Peril.

"Your friends can stay at my Summer Palace," she began slowly, "but you must leave. I don't tolerate hot-headed dragons on my land."

"'Hot-headed'!" Peril barked. "What, are you a comedian now? I have firescales!" She began backing up. "But I know when I'm not welcome somewhere. I'll leave…and here's a parting gift!" She picked up the nearest object, a conch shell, which she rubbed furiously against her chest so it would set ablaze faster, and then she tossed it at the statue of Coral in the middle of the room.

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a whale!" she heard a male SeaWing laugh.

Peril then realized that she'd misjudged her throw, and not hit the statue at all, but rather tossed the burning shell right out the open window at the far end of the main chamber.

"I'm leaving. A place with this much ice is no haven to someone like me. You can all stay if you wish, but I'm out of here."

"Peril! Wait!" Clay cried. "You don't have to leave!"

"Why should I stay, then? Her majesty's—" There was no respect in Peril's tone when she said 'her majesty's'. "—lackies have shown me no respect since we arrived. It's not my fault I was born with too much fire!" Now Peril pointed a talon at Coral. "And now this two-faced bitch is saying she's friends with Blister!"

Now even her friends gasped alongside the SeaWings who had gathered to watch this exchange.

"Peril!" Kestrel gasped. She didn't even know what else to say.

"That's the last straw," Coral said, visibly shaken by Peril's word choice. "Leave my kingdom. You are no longer welcome here if you bring such a vulgar dragon here. That goes for all of you, except for Kestrel. I cannot just send an injured dragon back out into the world before she's recovered."

"Now wait just a minute, your majesty!" Kestrel said. "That's my daughter you're sending out into that world. If you want her to leave, then I'm going with them even if it kills me. You either shelter us all or you shelter none of us. Where Peril and her friends go, _I go_. Is that clear?"

Coral blinked.

"Peril is your daughter?"

"Yes! If you think for a minute you're going to split us up again when we've only just began knowing each other—"

The SeaWing Queen relented a little. "I would never split up a mother and daughter," she whispered. "But you must understand. She cannot use such vulgarities here."

"Yeah, well, you can thank Scarlet and her soldiers for that. They're the only dragons my daughter ever had the displeasure of knowing. They corrupted her and used her for horrible things from the moment she hatched. It is not her fault she is like this." Kestrel paused. The rest of her group couldn't believe she was on the verge of crying. "Please, your majesty. Try and forgive her. She will control herself in the future, as long as they don't hound her over her firescales anymore. She can't help it she was born that way. Peril is surely as special as the animus dragons you shelter."

 _Kestrel trying to restore peace,_ Tsunami thought. _Am I dreaming?_

Coral looked all of her daughter's friends in the eyes with a more caring expression than she'd had this entire time.

"Peril," the queen said softly. Some of the gathered dragons sensed she was moved by Kestrel's brief speech. "I am sorry. You do not have to leave. None of you do." Then she looked back to Tsunami. "Please do consider my offer, daughter. I know it will hurt to go somewhere your friends cannot, but if you really do want to challenge me for the SeaWing throne someday, you must learn as much about our history and culture as possible, if you wish to be a respected queen."

"Can I talk it over with my friends?" Tsunami asked in a low voice.

Much to her daughter's surprise, Coral smiled. "Of course."

Tsunami turned to her friends.

"What should I do?" she asked. "I've always wanted to learn about how my own kind live, but I can't stand the idea of being so far away from all of you. I don't know how long it will take for me to learn everything I need to."

Clay stepped forward. "Take as much time as you need. We'll still be here when you return." Everyone else nodded. _Even Kestrel_ , Tsunami thought with a shocked expression on her face. Clay clearly spoke for everyone when he said that. "All of us would want to learn about our own tribes if it were the first time seeing it."

Sunny flew over and hugged Tsunami around her neck. "I'm going to miss you," she sobbed. Tsunami felt the little hybrid's tears against her neck. "We'll be thinking about you all the time while you're gone."

Tsunami was in tears too, but she managed to joke, "You're not gonna sing a goodbye song are you?"

"I'd cry for a week if I did right now." Sunny smiled weakly.

"Starflight?" Tsunami gasped when the NightWing hugged her next.

"Please come back soon," he said genuinely. "Who else am I gonna debate with? Glory?"

Glory laughed weakly. She couldn't hide that she'd been crying. "Hah! You know…I'd always win any argument with you, Starflight." She turned to Tsunami. "Don't be gone long. I feel like a part of me is already missing and you haven't even left for the Deep Palace yet."

Tsunami hugged Glory back. She chuckled weakly and tried to smile, before saying, "I always knew you had a soft side somewhere in there."

Peril couldn't make herself look at Tsunami or her mother. She was still seething over the argument caused by Coral. But Tsunami wouldn't hold that against her; she knew Peril would need time to forgive any of the SeaWing tribe. They hadn't treated her well from the start, afterall.

"I'll see you guys again soon," said Tsunami. She was trying to be strong but it was even harder for her not to cry now. "It'll be hard not to think about all of you." She turned to her mother. "I think I'm ready."

"Grand!" exclaimed Coral. Then she looked to Tsunami's friends. "I'll have her back as soon as possible, I promise. I know it can be hard being away from someone you've known for so long."

After giving one last glance back at her friends, Tsunami dived into the water after her mother. While she continued thinking about her friends, she still had the thought of what life so far under the ocean would be like. She hoped her mother was right, that it would be worth spending a few days away from her friends to learn how SeaWings live. She'd rather do it at the Summer Palace so she could be with her friends, but something told Tsunami as she swam after her mother, almost always struggling to keep up with her, that learning with her is a better option.

Tsunami wished she could tell her mother to slow down, but her Aquatic skills were rusty at best. Webs hadn't really made it his primary concern to teach Tsunami aquatic when they were underneath The Claws of the Clouds Mountains all those years. How she wished he had now. It would definitely help with asking her mother to slow down, and tell her that she's not as fast of a swimmer as she thought.

 _As long as I don't lose sight of her,_ Tsunami thought, _I'll be fine. I hope._


	15. Chapter 14: A SandWing's Trial

**Author's note:** I'm going to be posting several chapters I've written since I last updated all at once just to get it out of the way. I kinda forgot to keep up on it. All these chapters were proofread by mikey1393drago, as usual. This might be the only author's note between chapters 12 and 18.

* * *

 **Chapter 14:  
A SandWing's Trial**

"I hope you have good representation!" Blaze hissed at the SandWing that she believed was responsible for her niece's death when he was brought into the main chamber of the palace several days after Onyx's death.

"Blaze, please," said Glacier. "You can speak during this trial when the time is right. Everyone who was at the party and saw what happened, and wants to speak, will get their chance."

"I should get my chance to rip Quicksand's throat out," she muttered so barely anyone heard her. But Glacier did and glared in her direction.

Glacier was glad the twelve dragons who were here to decide on Quicksand's fate had all showed up. She was afraid some of them would chicken out and the trail would have to be delayed until replacements could be found. Glacier, however, had been given no choice but to be the judge this time; nobody else wanted to do it. Glacier wouldn't be surprised if it was because only they believed she was the only dragon here who would give Quicksand a fair trial. Everyone knew there would be no way that'd happen if any of the SandWings were the judge, especially not Blaze. She'd probably make sure Quicksand gets the most severe sentence and punishment possible. Glacier doubted any of them knew how to act as a judge anyway.

An IceWing guard roughly tossed Quicksand down at an icy table. He was still in iron shackles, and now covered with ice all over his body. The SandWing was also much skinnier than anyone remembered. Clearly he hadn't been taken good care of in the dungeon. It was probably a miracle he was even alive for his trial.

 _I just wish he'd died_ , Blaze thought. _He killed my niece. That's murder. Why does he even deserve a trial? He admitted to what he did!_

Glacier's voice silenced everyone. "How do you plead, Quicksand?"

 _You'd better say "guilty"!_ Blaze thought.

"Not…guilty," Quicksand said in a shaking voice. "How can you blame me for something I did not do?"

Blaze tried not to scream, _That's bullshit!_

"I did not ask for your reasons. Please wait until we get that far, Quicksand."

"I'm sorry, your majesty," he whispered.

"Save your apologies for Death Row!" a SandWing in the audience shouted.

"SILENCE!" Glacier bellowed, glaring at him "I won't tolerate outbursts. You're all adults. Now act like it or get out of my chamber."

Silence fell upon the chamber immediately. Except for Blaze's snarling as she glared at Quicksand, of course. Her expression said "I hope you die for what you did".

"Blaze! Enough of this snarling!"

Blaze crossed over her forearms and raised her snout up as if to say "Fine!". _I'll stay quiet for you, but to hell with it. This pointless trial is wasting time. Have you even captured the assassin? I don't think so._

"Now then. The assassin's name is Six-Claws. Correct?"

"Yes."

"And you said you left him alone with the cake mix. Remind me again. Why did you?"

"He mentioned we needed more flour."

"How long did you leave him alone?"

"It was for only a minute your majesty. I came back momentarily after collecting more flour. Within that time, he would have mixed the poison."

"Yes. He had to keep you out of the way momentarily to perform the treachery."

"And that makes this my fault?! None of us could have known he wasn't loyal to Blaze or that he intended to poison her!"

Blaze cleared her throat, sounding offended.

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be held responsible in some way. It won't be my decision that decides your fate in the end, and you may have not wanted this to happen, but it did, so you must be punished accordingly. If I let off every dragon who accidentally committed a crime, my fellow IceWings would think I'm too soft to be their queen. I got where I am today because I know when to show mercy and when not to. Being a queen isn't easy, and neither are the decisions a queen has to make."

Blaze tried not to snort. _It's not easy being me either. At least you don't have every competent assassin in Pyrrhia trying to poison you or cut your head off._

"But. Your majesty, I never committed any crime. I had no hand in the poison. I only did the first thing that came to mind. Six-Claws said he needed flour. I went to get him some. It happens all the time, running out of ingredients. My job is to keep ingredients available at all times."

"I'm aware of that. Before I was queen, I was in your position, Quicksand. But I never trusted a dragon I didn't know to help me prepare meals either. If I didn't know you, you didn't touch _anything_ in my kitchen."

"I am aware of that your majesty, but he seemed like a harmless SandWing. I thought about Princess Blaze the moment he arrived here, thinking this would have made her celebration better. I know I should've asked more questions, and I understand what I must now do in future. I never wanted this to happen. I feel so ashamed. But does that mean I have to die, just because of a simple mistake?"

"No it does not. Mistakes happen all the time. They can never be avoided or planned."

"Then why were so many dragons screaming I should die when your guards dragged me here?" Quicksand whined. "They were as bad as the SkyWings! Before I decided it wasn't the task for me, I spied on them for Blaze, posing as an ally of Burn's so Scarlet did not suspect me. They beg to see death, suffering, and gore in Scarlet's arena. I felt like I was there again when I saw how some of them were acting outside this chamber."

"He is right on that account your majesty," Blaze suddenly spoke after listening to him. "He never let me down. But my anger, it wants me to kill him. Myself in particular does not wish that upon him, but now I can't decide what I must do." She began to sob, but pressed on anyway. "I lost the only family who cared about me after my mother was killed, and the only niece I ever cared about, the one I kept safe from either of my rotten sisters. I can't say if I want him to rot in your dungeon or not, but he does not deserve this. I don't think I'll ever really forgive him for this misunderstanding on my part, I wouldn't live with myself if I ever had a dragon sentenced to death over a stupid mistake. I'm not like Burn and Blister. I'd tell you to lock me away and destroy the key if I ever became like either of them."

A sudden uproar came from outside the chamber.

"Bring the bastard in!" a female voice roared. It sounded like Cobra.

"They, they got him!" Quicksand complied under surprise.

The icy doors swung open and a SandWing bleeding from several gashes was thrown in. He tried getting up, but before he could even move an IceWing knocked him back down with his tail.

"Stay down, you worthless fu—"

"That's quite enough," Glacier hissed. "You've found him. There is no need for such vulgar words. I understand you are all angry, but control yourselves! For moon's sake, control yourselves!"

"You'll get yours you scum," Cobra snarled. She wanted to rip out his throat in front of everyone, but relented from it sensing it was not what Blaze and Glacier would want her to do. Still, she did not go without whacking him across the head one more time before backing away.

"Stay, Blaze," Glacier ordered, as she saw her rise to her feet ready to charge.

Blaze nearly fell over the icy wall that surrounded her seat when she stopped in her tracks. "But, he's—"

"I will not have murder in my court!" she screeched. "Guards! Take him away!"

"Wait wait wait!" Six-Claws stammered. "Before you do…ow, I think they broke my ribs…I need to say what I have realized." He looked at Quicksand as if he was sure how to progress. "Him. I've never seen him before in my life…but when we worked together, it was like something was faintly familiar about him. Like I should know him from...somewhere. Then I noticed we have the same markings under our wings."

"Just what are you saying!?" Blaze and Glacier asked at the same time.

"I think…Quicksand is…my father," he said through his pain. "I was hatched in the Sky Kingdom under Scarlet's watch, and she'd always told me that my parents…were either dead or had escaped to betray her for Blaze. I never wanted to believe it until I abandoned her when she was wounded by that RainWing dragonet and joined Blister, and she sent me here to poison Blaze."

Quicksand gulped. "You…mean to tell me my son was raised to be an assassin?" Then he desperately looked at Blaze and Glacier. "You can't kill him for this! You know how Scarlet is as well as I do. Any dragon she raises is forced to do wicked deeds! You've heard the tale of Peril, surely!"

Glacier stared across the chamber before speaking.

"I never intended to kill him. He will still be alive." She paused. "Nor did I request Cobra and my soldiers to beat him half to death." She glared at them spitefully and they lowered their heads in shame. "You were sent only to capture him. I would be lying if I said I was pleased with any of you right now. I want you all out of my sight. Return to your quarters so General Narwhal can issue punishment later." Glacier turned to a different set of her soldiers. "Take him to the healer, this instant. Once his bleeding has stopped and his ribs are bandaged, take him to the dungeon. We'll decide on his actual sentence later. Back to Quicksand now," she added as Narwhal and two others took him away. It was hard for them not to want to pound on this piece of shit for what he'd done, but his story had touched even Narwhal's heart. All the IceWings knew of Scarlet's sadism all too well.

Blaze blinked. "I didn't see that coming," she whispered. "One of my oldest friends' lost son killed my niece…" She shook her head as if to clear it and held her fur coat tightly against her body, as if it was a source of comfort to her.

"Do you need to take a break from this?" Glacier asked softly.

"No. I want to see this through to the end, without anymore interruptions."

"You can sit down now, Quicksand," Glacier declared, before calling out Quicksand's prosecutor. "Snowflake!"

A strikingly beautiful IceWing appeared from the audience.

 _Oh no. She's the one against me?_ Quicksand nearly fainted when he remembered who she was and realized she'd be prosecuting him. She'd never failed to get criminals convicted, or when needed, sentenced to death. They called her Snowflake, but dragons shouldn't let her name fool them; she was not gentle like her namesake, being brutal much like her ancestor whose name she shared. She's almost ripped dragons' throats out with her bare talons for just looking at her wrong, not even in battle no less. She was just as fierce in trials. Her record for convicting dragons was spotless.

"I know what you're thinking, Quicksand," she said in a voice that sounded like ice shattering. Chills rushed down Quicksand's spine and it wasn't because of the weather for once.

 _I'm dead,_ he miserably thought, slouching back into the seat between four scarred IceWing guards. He'd felt so confident before, but now he felt like he'd been shattered by Glacier's club. _That's what I'm thinking!_

"And you're right. I'll convict you just like I convicted the last traitor. You argued a good point, that you've always been loyal to her majesty Blaze, but I saw right through that load of seagull droppings the minute you began. And your 'son', he's a bigger liar than Scarlet. I'll be pleased to be the one that gets both of you executed for what happened to Onyx."

 _What a bitch,_ Blaze thought. _Get on with it._

"I'll get on with it alright, Blaze."

"Huh?!" Blaze screeched with alarm. Glacier only gave her a confused look.

"Don't you know? I'm half NightWing, on my mother's side. I know everything you've thought this whole time."

 _Great. As if we needed a mindreader on this case…_

Snowflake seemed to ignore this thought just so she could move on with her argument.

"Quicksand claims he had no idea Six-Claws would mix poison into the batter when he went to look for flour," Snowflake began, "but don't all of you find it a little convenient that just as soon as he's about finished defending himself, Cobra and the others find his supposed long-lost son who just happened to recognize his dad right away? Can any of us really know they didn't plan all this out and they're just yanking at our hearts with a fake sob story to try and get out of being executed for the murder they committed together? Clearly these two wanted to kill Blaze, but Onyx's sweet tooth spared her aunt from that fate."

"Quicksand has never betrayed us before!" Blaze roared. "And don't you _ever_ bring up my niece again! Is that clear?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't speak ill of the dead and all that, or…"

Blaze wanted to strangle her right now. "…You'll be joining them if you don't want your tongue!"

Glacier raised a talon. "Enough, Blaze. I'm not agreeing with some of what she's said either, but please, it's her turn to speak."

 _And it'll be her turn to die if she mentions Onyx again._ Blaze wanted to glance over to Cobra and nod, but then she remembered she'd been forced out of the chamber by Glacier already. _I suppose I'll sit through this…_

"Furthermore, why didn't you think 'Maybe I should look for flour here in my kitchen before I go to the storage room' before you did so?" Snowflake continued. "If I had been in your position, I would have looked all throughout the kitchen before I went to another room for missing supplies, e _specially_ when I am working with a dragon I have never met. Why didn't you use better judgment? And don't answer that." She turned to the twelve dragon jurors. "He may have put up a convincing argument and I won't lie, I wish I could believe it, but then I wouldn't be doing my job and putting away a murderer. He conspired with Six-Claws to take Blaze and Onyx out of the picture for one of her sisters and is trying to fool all of you into thinking he would never do such a thing.

"Why does he expect us to believe that just because he has been a loyal friend of Blaze's for decades, that automatically it means he'd never do anything to betray her? All of you probably know by now, the story of how Peril of the Sky Kingdom betrayed Queen Scarlet after living her entire life serving her. What's to say Quicksand didn't do the same thing after he discovered his missing son was alive and is a trained assassin? Maybe he just wanted to put an end to this war on his own terms, even if it also meant putting an end to two dragons he'd been loyal to up until now. Who's to say twenty years of this fighting between most of the tribes hadn't began to affect him and he wanted to do something about it that Blaze wouldn't have done? Send a message to all the tribes, so to speak."

Glacier did not hide that she seemed bored by Snowflake's little speech, as if it was something she'd heard from her in trials before.

"Are you finished?" she asked.

"Yes, I believe I am," said Snowflake. "Not much else needs to be said to convict guilty criminals and have them sentenced to immediate execution."

Glacier snarled. "You can stop right there. That's quite enough."

"Yes, your majesty," she said, but not very respectfully.

"Sit down already. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had enough of your mouth, Snowflake."

Snowflake returned to her seat by an empty spot that would usually be where her client would be, but her client obviously couldn't be here for this trial. She'd wanted to bring that up during her short argument, but Glacier, considering how close she had been to Onyx, probably would've been displeased with her for 'disrespectfully mentioning someone who is deceased'. Not to mention Blaze probably would've tried to kill her for it, with how fragile her mind presently was.

"If that is all both sides have to say, then everyone is dismissed so the jurors can come to an agreement in private," Glacier declared. Neither Quicksand nor Snowflake speak up. "Then it's clear, no-one else has any more arguments, so now, everyone leave this chamber, except for the jurors. You will stay here as long as you need to privately reach a verdict. Knock on the main door when you are ready."

* * *

"You know I'm telling the truth, right your majesty?" Quicksand whispered to Blaze, even though he wasn't allowed to talk to her. "I still feel terrible about all this, but you know more than anyone I never would have wanted this to happen…"

"Hey!" an IceWing guard barked. "You know Queen Glacier's orders. Do _not_ talk with Blaze."

Blaze moved between Quicksand and the IceWing before he could strike Quicksand.

"He can talk to me if he wishes to," she hissed. "If you have a problem with that, you'll have me to deal with."

Blaze made sure the IceWing guard saw the deadly barb on the end of her tail dripping with venom, which sizzled when it dripped on the ice. That was enough to frighten him off without saying another word to Quicksand.

"Thank you, your majesty," Quicksand whispered. He almost bowed down to Blaze, but she stopped him, and gave him a gently look as if to say "I'm not a queen yet, there is no point bowing to me". "I can only hope they are as understanding as you are."

Blaze gently raised Quicksand's head up with her tail.

"There will. You gave a more compelling argument than Snowflake. It convinced me not to blame you for what happened to Onyx. And I can't really pass the blame onto your son, either. He was raised by Scarlet, so all he has known is killing other dragons. I only blame Scarlet for him being this way, but we'll never know which of my sisters sent him to kill me…" Blaze lowered her head and let some tears fall from her snout. "This trial is pointless. We don't have who wanted Onyx and I dead. Only the dragon used to kill us."

"BLAZE!" a female voice roared.

 _Oh great._

"Quicksand is forbidden to speak with you until the trial is over!"

It was Glacier. "He knows that. Guards, take him away this instant!"

"This isn't right!" Blaze hissed.

"Why are you defending him? I know, you've realized he never wanted to hurt Onyx, but he did, so he must be punished in some way. It's the ancient laws of my kingdom, so that it does not fall into disorder. I can respect he's been a good friend of yours, and a loyal one, all these years, but I can't let him have any special privileges other accused criminals don't by letting him talk to someone he committed a crime against only because you aren't holding it against him."

"But—"

"No. She's right. I can't disrespect their laws now."

Blaze frowned. She felt like crying as she hugged Quicksand, much to his and Glacier's shock.

"I'll see you again soon if they let you go free," Blaze whispered in Quicksand's ear, before gently licking him on the cheek. _There's no way they can find him guilty of this_ , she thought as Quicksand sadly walked away from her, wiping away tears as she whimpered.

There was no controlling her emotions anymore. Blaze was so worried about what the jury would decide. She believed Quicksand deserved to be innocent, it wasn't his doing, but will the jury feel that way?

All Blaze can do now is pray for the best outcome.

* * *

Three hours have passed before a knock comes from within the chamber.

Queen Glacier herself answered the knock immediately. She listens to the whispering of one juror for about a minute before turning back to the anxious dragons.

"They've decided," she declared. "Let us all get back into my chamber."

A few minutes later, Glacier was in her stand again, and all the dragons had returned to the seats they were in before. Except for Blaze, who was now sitting behind Quicksand with other dragons whom also believed he was innocent.

"What is your verdict for the defendant's charge of assisting an assassin?" Glacier asked the foredragon of the jurors.

"Your majesty," she said, "we have agreed that Quicksand is…"

Blaze began repetitively thinking, _Please say 'Not guilty'. Please say 'Not guilty'. Please say 'Not guilty'!_

"…guilty."

Blaze's eyes become wide with horror. She wanted to scream "NO!" but knew that any outbursts would probably get her kicked out by Glacier this time.

"And his sentence?"

 _Please show some mercy on him…_ Blaze was beginning to whimper.

"We have determined that Quicksand will be sentenced, for his crime of assisting in an assassination…" she continued.

 _Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please!_

"…to death…via the shock from electric arctic eels," the IceWing finished with some stammering.

Now Blaze completely lost her mind.

"NO!" she screamed. "He didn't want any of this to happen!"

"Silence! Order in the court!" Glacier ordered.

"I'm sorry, Blaze," the same IceWing said to her genuinely. "But all criminals must pay for what they did, even if I'm not always comfortable with this decision. It's never easy deciding to take the life of a dragon who accidentally committed a crime."

"Your majesty, you can't let this happen!" Blaze wailed. "I'm begging you. Please, you must overturn their decision! You heard her! Quicksand only committed this crime on accident…"

"Quit your wailing!" a male IceWing sitting in the audience behind Snowflake. "Murder is murder! He deserves a slower execution, if you ask me."

"Guards!" Glacier's furious voice sliced through the air so suddenly it made everyone jump. "Get him out of here this instant!" Then she looked to Blaze and Quicksand at the same time. "I'm sorry, Blaze, but there is next to nothing that can be done once the death sentence has been decided on. It is almost final."

"Almost?! There's a way to overturn it?"

"Yes, but it rarely happens. There has to be a good reason for it to be overturned."

"Please! Tell me what it is! I'll do anything for Quicksand! He doesn't deserve death by electric eels!"

"Don't listen to her—"

"One more word and there will be another victim of my eels!" Glacier hissed. The female IceWing immediately bit her tongue so hard blood began dripping from her jaws. A whimper of pain carried through the chamber before she was taken out by a guard to the healer's station. Glacier turned back to Blaze. "Hmm. As I was saying. The only way it can be overturned, besides having certain evidence, is if the condemned dragon is meant to marry another when he is sentenced to death."

 _Wait,_ Blaze thought carefully, so that half-NightWing Snowflake would not be able to read her thoughts again. _They are going to think I am crazy after this, but this may just work, and it'll be worth it if it does. No, no "ifs"! It_ will _work!_

"Your majesty?" Blaze asked.

 _What is she up to now?_ Snowflake wondered. _I can't get a clear picture of her thoughts. It's like she knows how to avoid having her mind read by a NightWing._

"I didn't want to reveal this until my hatching day part was near its end but…"

"What is it?" Glacier asked.

"What if I were to say it was my intention to propose to Quicksand?" she asked sheepishly. "I've even picked out the perfect treasure to bestow to him as a ring. I mean, we've known each other for so long, and I've secretly always wanted to tell him I loved him. I just either never had the courage or believed the time was right. I thought on the night of my hatching day would be perfect…but then one of my sisters had to go and ruin everything!"

"Don't believe her!" Snowflake screeched. "She's clearly making up a last minute lie just so she can save his worthless skin!"

"SILENCE!" Glacier roared. "I've had about enough of you for one day. You're enough to give dragons a migraine. Hold your tongue until I've said you can speak again, Snowflake."

Snowflake rather nervously bowed her head. "Yes, your majesty."

Glacier turned to look at Quicksand, whose glance barely reached her own.

"Is this really true?" she questioned him.

"This is as much of a surprise to me as it is to all of you," Quicksand said. "I didn't see this coming."

"Of course it's true!" Blaze said. "I wouldn't lie about my future wedding plans. I truly want to spend the rest of my life with him! He's been loyal to me all this time. Quicksand isn't younger than me like the SandWings I flirted with, but I know he's the one for me."

Glacier blinked. For once in her life, she's not even sure what to say immediately.

"I must consult with the jurors on this matter." Glacier flew over to them immediately and instructed them to all speak in whispers.

"How do you all feel about this?" Glacier asked them.

"I believe her," the foredragon said. "And we can't just rip them apart. Especially not now, now that she's told Quicksand her intentions."

"I agree," half the other dragons said together.

"Are you all crazy?" a male IceWing spoke for the rest.

"We may be," Glacier said, "but you have been outvoted 7 to 6." She turned around to face everyone again. "There will be no execution!" she declared. "But I'm afraid Quicksand must still serve his sentence."

"No!" Blaze said miserably. "How am I supposed to marry him in a frozen _cell_?"

"I'm sorry, Blaze. That's all we can do for him." Glacier flew over to her. "Just know this, in a few years, you'll still be able to marry him. I will make sure of that for you. Nothing will happen to Quicksand as long as I'm the queen." Her voice suddenly became darker. "Anyone that lays a talon on him will not breath for another second. Am I making myself clear? I won't stand by and let Blaze's life be ruined anymore than it already has been, especially _not_ by my own tribe. We are _all_ allies in this war, and if you don't like that, I'll rudely show you the way out of my kingdom myself, if I do not have you thrown in with the arctic electric eels!"

"Your majesty," Blaze whispered. "Thank you. I-I don't know who I can ever repay you for this."

"By helping me win this war and becoming the next SandWing queen," the Ice Queen answered her resolutely. "That is all I ask of you now. You can keep your land for your future kingdom, but if you still really want to negotiate it, save it for until this war is over. Defeating Blister and Burn is all I care about right now. Not adding more territory to my kingdom. Do that for me and we are even for as long as we reign over our kingdoms."


	16. Chapter 15: Lessons in Aquatic

**Chapter 15:  
Lessons in Aquatic**

Coral flashed her scales to say "Now this way, Tsunami", but Tsunami barely understood the Aquatic message. She only knew to follow her mother when Coral surfaced through what looked like a pool.

Suddenly, Tsunami noticed something out of the corner of her eye at the same moment her mother had disappeared. There was another SeaWing, a male, swimming around, flashing his scales as if trying to tell her something. She took note of him, but that was all she did to acknowledge him before following her mother into the Deep Palace, since she had no idea what this stranger was saying.

As she crawled over the edge of the pool, Tsunami was amazed to see that, even though the Deep Palace was obviously miles under the Bay of A Thousand Scales, the room was not flooded at all. The only other SeaWings was an adult male with sea green scales holding up a much younger female with dull pink scales that have hints of light blue running through them.

"You are my key to the throne…" the male SeaWing whispered to the dragonet.

"You can return Anemone to me now, Whirlpool," Coral said so suddenly that he nearly jumped out of his skin, hoping the queen hadn't heard his remark to Anemone. She was waving the end of the harness that is around her waist, which would connect to the harness around Anemone's waist.

Whirlpool cleared his throat. "Er. Yes, your majesty."

There was a low click as Coral connected the two ends of the harness. Anemone frowned as if she was thinking "Well there goes my freedom", but Coral was obvious to her youngest daughter's disdain.

"Who is this?" Whirlpool asked, pointing at Tsunami with his tail. "I have never seen her before."

Coral moved between him and Tsunami. "This is Tsunami, my lost daughter who served as the inspiration of _The Lost Princess_. She wishes to learn our ways, but she must learn Aquatic before she can be taught our culture. And you are the best dragon to teach her Aquatic."

"But your majesty, it will take Tsunami five years to master Aquatic," he reminded her.

 _Five years!_ Tsunami almost screamed. "But you promised I'd only be away from my friends for a few days!"

"Er. That's right," Coral said awkwardly. "Yes, yes, I did…"

"I'm shocked. You told your daughter she would learn all she needs to about SeaWings in a few days? Anemone hasn't even begun to master anything yet and she's been practicing for nearly a month."

"I may have exaggerated a little," Coral said sheepishly, nervously fiddling her talons. She looked to Tsunami. "I'll be leaving you with Whirlpool for a few hours. I must check on the royal hatchery, and then attend a crucial meeting that is about to begin."

"You're not even going to be here to watch me learn Aquatic?" Tsunami whined.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to, but being a queen is busy work," she said, and then disappeared through an opening at the other end of the room without even a 'goodbye'.

 _Well that's just great,_ thought Tsunami. _Now I'm stuck here to learn things for who knows how long._

"Pay attention, young'un!" Whirlpool said harshly, immediately snapping Tsunami out of her thoughts. "Her majesty has instructed me to have you learn Aquatic, so that is what I am going to do. I'm your best bet for learning Aquatic, so you're stuck with me whether you like it or not."

 _Glory would be spitting venom at you by now if you talked to her like that,_ Tsunami thought. _Or calling you a jackass. One of the two. Thank the moons he's not part NightWing or I'd really be in trouble._ Tsunami had to suppress a laugh at the thought of Glory calling Whirlpool a "jackass". The last thing she wanted to do was explain _that_ to him, if he asked her what was so funny.

"So. Follow me to the submerged chamber where I will teach you Aquatic."

"But. Can I not learn it here?"

"I'm afraid not. Aquatic is known as Aquatic because you speak with your scales, not your mouth. It is how SeaWings communicate under the water, where we cannot open our mouths to speak like we are now. Sound does not travel submerged, because it is far too distorted. You could scream and I assure you no one would hear it."

 _Scream from boredom, more like. Your voice is enough to make someone fall asleep. I'd rather be chased by a shark and bleeding than listen to you._

"So. Time for your first lesson. Follow me please."

He dived into the water without warning. Tsunami looked down to see Whirlpool glaring back up at her impatiently, before she dived in after him reluctantly.

Whirlpool began flashing his scales, but it was not their bioluminescence that immediately caught Tsunami's glance. It was another flashing she'd immediately noticed out of the corner of her eye and, barely turning her head so Whirlpool wouldn't snap at her again, she saw it was the same mystery SeaWing from before. He seemed to be flashing the same message at her, too.

 _Him again?_ Tsunami wondered. _Who is he and why is he following me like this?_

The flashing of Whirlpool's scales became faster, as if he was annoyed with Tsunami. The mystery SeaWing had vanished before Whirlpool could see him.

 _I knew this would be boring, but three moons, I didn't expect it to be so soon!_ Tsunami made a low groaning noise that rapidly dissipated into a mess of bubbles, clearly explaining to her noise definitely does not travel underwater very well. _It'd be more exciting to pluck my own freaking scales than be here,_ she additionally thought as she repeated the same sentence in Aquatic for the fifth time in a row. She failed yet again, and this time it earned her a strike from Whirlpool's tail.

Tsunami snarled at Whirlpool and instinctively bit at his tail, as as she'd done to Scarlet when the Sky Queen would strike her the same way. _Just try that again! You'll be shark chow,_ she thought hatefully. Not that she understood the remark from Whirlpool when he flashed his scales in disappointment at her. _Ugh. Why can't I take a break from this? He's just making me say the same sentence over-and-over. Have me try something else you old coot. How am I supposed to learn just by repeating one sentence until night?_

Something more interesting than this entire lesson suddenly appears out of the corner of Tsunami's eye again. It's the same flashing scales of the mystery male from before, but much closer to the submerged chamber than before. _He's getting brave. Mr. Prick here might see him at this rate. What is he saying though? I wish I could tell him 'I don't speak Aquatic. Meet me somewhere private on dry land later'. Like he'll read my mind, he's a SeaWing._

When the mystery male continues flashing his scales for another minute straight, Tsunami realizes it might be a hidden message. But how will she decipher it? She can't even master this apparently simple sentence that Whirlpool has been making her repeat for the past fifteen minutes.

 _But maybe…_ She glares at Whirlpool for a moment, then she flashes the message that she saw outside at him. She shrugged and sported a confused look, so he doesn't think it's something he wanted to say for him, and looks out the window so he knows it's something she saw a SeaWing outside the chamber saying. _I just hope he doesn't go investigate now. But maybe it'd be my chance to escape if he did._

Sure enough, he didn't. Instead, Whirlpool swam over to a shelf at the far end of the chamber, and came back with a fragment of coral. He handed it to Tsunami.

 _What in three moons?_ she wondered. Then she realized it had symbols matching the shapes of a SeaWing's bioluminescent scales carved into it. _It must be the Aquatic alphabet,_ she thought, understanding the shapes formed an entire SeaWing as though she could draw it's whole body. The next thing she notices are letters at certain points of those shapes. _This looks like Morse Code. Why did he not give this to me sooner? I can learn each letter one after another this way._ Whirlpool points to the scroll in her hands, then spells out the word 'Learn' with his flashes. Using his talon, he points at the first symbol glaring severely at Tsunami waiting for her to say the letter with her scales.

Glaring back at her teacher, she flashed an "A" with her scales, but Whirlpool didn't seem any more pleased with her than he had yet. He points at the second, expecting her to say the letter back. She responded by flashing a "B" with her scales.

Whirlpool would repeat this process until Tsunami had flashed the entire Aquatic alphabet for him to see. She messed up a few letters—"M", "Q", "W", and "Z"—in the process and he made her repeat them five times each, as if to punish Tsunami for her mistake. Flashing his scales to spell out 'Again', he expected Tsunami to comply by repeating every single letter once more.

 _Oh, just cut me in half with a scavenger's sword already,_ Tsunami miserably thought. _This is Hell. I'm not sure what's worse. One of Starflight's lectures or this._ Not even a moment later she thought, _Okay, definitely this. At least I can just walk away from Starflight when his words bore me, but here..._

She pointed to above her and Whirlpool understood she wanted a breather. He nods his head in agreement, before following Tsunami to the small air pocket she knew was there. Now she could speak for a moment with words he can hear without stammers.

"How about you just let me study alone for a little bit," she began, " _on dry land_?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Whirlpool hissed. "Are you trying to make me think you're lacking a few brain cells? You can't see your own scales flash above water. If it was nighttime that is a different matter, but our light travels far better submerged. You don't see SeaWings communicate to each other up there, especially due to this war. Who knows what could find you out there? Think a little before you speak, for moons' sake!"

"Humph!"she snorted at him, before muttering a curse that would have surely got her in a lot of trouble. Thankfully only she heard it, though. "Then why did that flock of SeaWings I met at Diamond Spray River use their scale luminescence when my brother appeared. This was weeks before now. It was my brothers Turtle and Cerulean, and my uncle Commander Shark, among others."

"So you are the one that left Cerulean in the infirmary with a migraine that lasted two days. He'd come back being carried by Turtle and Aquamarine, and crying about some SeaWing girl that'd pelted him across the head with her tail."

"He attacked me first. I only defended myself. And I'd do it again! Next time I won't be so gentle, either. He's lucky he only had a two-day migraine."

"You've had your little breather, now back to studies. And no, before you ask again. I am not about to let you study alone. Queen Coral expects me to teach you Aquatic professionally. And by the moons, I intend to even if it means you lose a night's sleep."

 _I'd love to knock a few of your teeth out with my tail._ "Can I not just practice with my friends for homework purposes? I'll study better that way. I'll even prove it to you in my next, boring lesson with you."

Whirlpool ignored that last part. "Who said you'd get to leave the Deep Palace before you've learned Aquatic, our history, and our culture? Queen Coral's intentions for you are to return to your friends only once you've become a walking history book about SeaWing culture."

"Mother never said I needed to stay here for days, only until her meeting is over. Or did you expect her to leave without me?"

"She left me in charge of you, Tsunami. That's reason enough for me to believe she doesn't want you leaving the Deep Palace until your studies are complete to _my_ satisfaction."

"Yes I understand that, but I know my mother intends to collect me in a few hours whether you like it or not, Sir."

"You definitely misunderstood her intentions. She intended to collect you later so she could take you to your temporary room in the Deep Palace sleeping chambers. You will be residing with Arroyo. She's been lonely in her sleeping quarters ever since your last sister, besides Aquamarine and Anemone, was mysteriously murdered in the middle of the night."

 _Surely he's making this up. Mother didn't want to lock me away from my friends._ "I'll see what mother has to say about this when she returns!" Tsunami hissed, before diving back down so she could strike Whirlpool in the face with the end of her tail.

"Or I'll have your mother lock you in the eel cave for a few days," he muttered. "You can listen to all those criminals begging for freedom day and night." Then he followed Tsunami back into the water.

 _There he is again,_ Tsunami thought as she soared through the ocean, trying to lose Whirlpool, even if for just a moment. She saw the mystery male flashing his scales more frantically. This time, she thought she understood his message, at least partially, but she doubted it was his message from before.

 _Whirlpool is a squid brain._

Tsunami grinned, then flashed her scales in agreement, thinking of things Glory would say. _And a complete jackass,_ she said in a slower Aquatic pattern.

 _I couldn't have said it better myself_ , the male flashed back with a smile. _All dragonets hate him. I think your mother secretly does, too._

 _Hide,_ Tsunami suddenly warned. _Whirlpool._

After flashing one last message to Tsunami, _Don't trust him,_ the stranger was gone in an instant. Tsunami didn't even have time to see where he went before Whirlpool was upon her again.

 _There you are!_ Whirlpool was raging in Aquatic. _Don't you ever swim away from me during a lesson again. Am I clear?_

Tsunami wanted to say "Clear as freshwater, Mr. Asshole" but she wasn't _that_ good with Aquatic yet, so she had to settle for her scales flashing _Whatever_ instead.

Whirlpool followed up his furious snarl with a long message in Aquatic:

 _You'll never get to see your friends again with this attitude. Lesson over. I expect you to study all night after your mother comes for you. Go back to the dry chamber to wait for your mother. We're done here. You're the biggest waste of time in my career._


	17. Chapter 16: The Royal Hatchery

**Chapter 16:  
The Royal Hatchery**

"How did your first lesson with Whirlpool go?" Coral asked Tsunami when she finally returned five hours later.

"Terrible," Tsunami muttered. "He hates me. He didn't even finish my lesson. I barely learned enough while you were gone for it to have been worth my time. And you won't even believe the last thing he said to me: 'You'll never get to see your friends again with this attitude. Lesson over. I expect you to study all night after your mother comes for you. Go back to the dry chamber to wait for your mother. We're done here. You're the biggest waste of time in my career.'"

Coral gasped and her eyes became narrow. "I'll make sure to have a word with him later," she hissed. Her tone suddenly shifted back to its usual care-free one. "But for now, I wanted to take you to The Royal Hatchery, the place where you would have been born had Webs not stolen you from here. Seeing how your siblings are incubated is the first step of learning about SeaWing culture. We will move onto the Royal Hatchery next."

"Eating is prohibited in the Royal Hatchery," Coral explained to Tsunami as they walked down a tunnel towards it. Anemone was still attached to Coral by the harness. "You never know when blood may attract sharks that would try to eat my eggs." She paused, then added, "This is where I lay my eggs, as well."

"How do you find out if the eggs are male or female before they hatch?" Tsunami asked.

"With an animus-touched balance," she answered nonchalantly. Then she went back to what she'd been explaining before, as if she didn't want to reveal too much about the balance. "Warm water enters the Royal Hatchery through jets built into the walls. We craft the nests from seaweed and tuck them over said jets." Tsunami noticed two serious-looking male dragons standing on front of a door, armed with spears that looked as deadly as the Narwhal horn tied around her mother's tail.

"Stand aside," Coral ordered them. "This is my lost daughter, Tsunami. She is welcome into the Royal Hatchery. I have explained all the rules of the hatchery to her."

The guards obliged, but their expressions did not change.

Tsunami couldn't shake the feeling that they watched her as she, Coral, and Anemone entered the submerged Royal Hatchery.

It was almost just as Coral had described, with a talonful of eggs neatly sat in nests and being warmed by jets of water. However, there was one thing Coral had neglected to mention: A dark green marble statue with sapphire eyes, a perfect replica of a female SeaWing perched on a pedestal in the middle of the submerged chamber. It was decorated with garlands of blue and purple underwater plants, woven through its horns and wings, and the base of the statue was inscribed with a name, spelling "Orca" with various gemstones. Tsunami assumed they must have been taken from the SeaWings' treasury.

Tsunami knew it couldn't be her mother. This dragon looked longer than Coral, and even if it was her when she was younger, they didn't have the same face. Besides, it specifically said "Orca" on the pedestal, she remembered with another brief glance at the gemstones.

 _Who is this?_ Tsunami asked in Aquatic. For once she was thankful she'd had the opportunity to learn how to speak short phrases in Aquatic before Whirlpool cut her lesson short.

 _Orca. My late daughter,_ Coral answered, flashing her scales slowly. Her scale's flashing seemed as sad as the expression on her face was. _Before she fought me for the throne and died by the Narwhal tusk on my tail, she built this statue in her likeness and donated it to the Royal Hatchery. She was a very talented sculptor. Even I envied her skill. I still loved her even after our battle, and I have missed her everyday since. It was nine years ago, but Orca's last words as she died in my arms still haunt me, even if nobody knows what she meant to this day: "I did this all wrong… You're going to rule forever…aren't you, Mother?...You should thank me…no one…can stop you…now…"_

Tsunami felt a chill down her spine as she stared down Orca's statue. There was something unnerving about looking at a statue sculpted in the image of someone who died before she was born. She didn't like being so close to the statue, but couldn't place a talon on why. It just gave her as much of an uneasy feeling as being around Queen Scarlet and Princess Burn in the SkyWing arena did.

Tsunami pointed to the surface. Coral followed her.

Tsunami's scales flashed slowly. _I don't like it in there. That statue gives me the creeps. I don't know why, but it is._

 _There's nothing to fear. Everyone who knows the story of Orca, anyone that's read_ The Tragedy of Orca _, feels this way when they're guarding the doors to the Royal Hatchery. It's hard not to feel uneasy about a statue carved by someone who died so young. Orca was only seven when she tried fighting me for the throne. The truth is, if it wasn't for this—_ Coral raised up her tail so Tsunami could examine the Narwhal tusk tied around it with rope. _—she would have won. No-one knows how she did it, but Orca nearly killed me in our fight, but then she ran right into my thrashing tail and impaled herself through the heart with this Narwhal tusk._ Tsunami didn't realize that Coral had just quoted _The Tragedy of Orca_ word-for-word, but Anemone did.

Coral sighed, then closed her eyes as she and her daughters floated at the top of the pond.

* * *

" _I challenge you, mother, for the SeaWing throne!" a seven-year old SeaWing decreed. Her name was Orca, the oldest daughter of Queen Coral._

" _Surely she can't be serious!" Orca heard a SeaWing male whisper harshly. "Her majesty would mop the floor with her. Orca's still a dragonet."_

" _I agree," whispered a female. "How does Orca expect to win a fight to the death with her mother? She doesn't have nearly the years of fighting experience her mother does."_

" _This will be a short fight," whispered another male._

" _You are right this will be a short fight," Orca hissed. "And I will be your new queen when it is over. I'm positive I can beat her."_

 _Coral stepped up from her throne. "Then we shall see," she said, throwing off many of her trinkets—mostly beads, but also a bracelet made out of gems and a seaweed headband. She handed them off to her brother, Commander Shark. "Please hold onto these for me. I don't want to soil them with blood."_

 _Coral flew down into the arena. She roared commandingly and flapped her wings, but Orca didn't budge; she didn't even blink or show any other minute sign of fear. This shocked Coral and the SeaWings watching. They didn't remember Orca being so fearless._

Where'd she find a new spine? _Coral wondered._ But no matter. I'll rip it off just to prove a point to her little sisters. _She took note that Aquamarine and Orca's other little sisters were watching with stunned expressions. They weren't even half Orca's age. Coral hoped someone would take them out of here—they didn't need to see such brutality at a young age—but nobody moved to lead them away._

" _I want someone to take Aquamarine and my other children out of this chamber immediately," Coral declared. "They do not need to see—"_

"— _their mother die," Orca finished her mother's sentence._

 _Coral hissed. The spines on her neck rose furiously._

" _How dare you interrupt me? I am your mother, and I am still the queen. No-one speaks over their queen."_

" _It doesn't matter. You won't be queen for much longer. I promise you that."_

She sure is full of herself all of a sudden, _thought Coral_.I'm curious how she plans to overpower me. I'm more experienced, stronger, and larger than Orca. I'll always be two of those three. Orca will never have more experience and strength than me.

 _Coral winched at a sudden pain in her shoulder. It was Orca. She'd drawn the first blood in this fight. It dripped from her talons._

It will be the only time she makes me bleed, _she thought._

 _Coral lunged across the arena at Orca. What happened next sent a chorus of screams through the audience. The Sea Queen roared as she was sent flying across the arena, crashing into the wall with so much force that it collapsed. The section cleared out of any SeaWings immediately._

 _On wobbling knees, Coral picked herself up, wondering what just it her._

There's no way Orca did that, _she thought._ Orca isn't strong enough to throw me like a fish.

 _Coral let out a stunned gasp when she saw Orca again. Something seemed different about her all of a sudden, just as if something had changed about Orca's aura. The air felt chilly, worse than any winter night in the Deep Palace, and there was something suddenly menacing about Orca that Coral didn't understand._

 _She didn't understand the feeling coursing through her veins, either._ Was it fear? _she wondered. Coral had never felt fear before in her life, when she was leading her soldiers into battles to defend the Summer Palace from Scarlet and Burn's own soldiers, so why did being so near one of her daughters send such terror through her body? It made no sense._

" _What has gotten into you?" Coral demanded. "You are not yourself. The aura you are giving off…it's making me feel a fear I have never felt in battle against the soldiers of Scarlet and Burn, and even Burn herself! And you never had this kind of strength before!"_

 _When Orca spoke, Coral's terror intensified ten-fold. Her voice sounded somewhat unnatural,_ especially _for a young female dragon._

" _You do not need to know my secrets," she growled. "We are here to fight, not tell our life stories. Now FIGHT ME, mother, or I will take your throne by forfeit."_

" _I'll never forfeit my throne!" Coral roared. "I don't know who or what has gotten into you, but you will never be the next Sea Queen. There is some sort of trickery going on here and I will not have it ruling over my kingdom. My ancestors would roll over in their graves."_

" _I'll make sure you join them!"_

 _Orca flew across the arena at her shell-shocked mother. She began attacking with rapid slashes across Coral's face, chest, and wings before she could react. Blood splattered the arena floor with every brutal attack. Then finally, Orca locked her jaws down on her mother's throat and dragged her to the ground without grasping Coral with her arms._

" _How slowly do you want me to rip out your throat, mother?" Orca asked. Her voice had became more wicked-sounding._

 _Coral flashed a message in aquatic:_ You won't!

 _Orca screamed when she felt a searing pain come from her hindquarters. She released her jaws' grip to see which of Coral's followers had intervened—she would rip out their throat for it—but Orca was stunned to see it was her mother who had attacked her, with the Narwhal tusk tied around her tail. As Coral fell back panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly and her upwards of a dozen wounds bleeding profusely, Orca saw her own blood dripping from the end of the Narwhal tusk. It had punched a hole in her hindquarters—_

And now I'll punch a hole in you, mother! _Orca thought with a terrible roar. She flapped her wings and then flew across the arena to where Coral laid. "This is it, mother! Say goodbye to your throne!"_

" _No!" someone in the audience cried._

" _YES!" Orca bellowed. "The reign of Queen Coral ends and the reign of Queen Orca begins!" Then something else happened. "Oh!" the young SeaWing suddenly squealed. There was a loud thud; blood dripped down onto the floor between Coral and Orca._

" _I-I can't believe it!" a female SeaWing cried._

 _Orca hadn't noticed her mother's tail had been raised up so the Narwhal tusk was pointing dangerously. It was now embedded deep into her chest._

" _ORCA!" Coral cried in terror. "No! I didn't want it to come to this!" She had suspected something was wrong with Orca for some time, but she never would have imagined the cause being animus magic. Coral knew that dragons who used their animus magic too much eventually lost their souls._

 _Coral didn't remove the Narwhal tusk from Orca's wound; she knew that would only result in Orca bleeding out immediately. "Healers! Someone get the healers!"_

" _N…No…use, mother…" Orca's voice had returned to normal, but Coral had forgotten about its change by now._

" _No, no, no! They can save you, Orca!"_

" _The tusk…pierced…my heart…" Orca spit up blood. "…they can't…save me." Her voice suddenly became a little stronger, but only for a moment. "I did this…all wrong… You're going to rule forever…aren't you, Mother?...You should…thank me…no one…can stop you…now…"_

 _And then Orca was gone. Her head collapsed on the bloody arena floor, and her wings fell shortly after._

 _Coral removed the Narwhal tusk from her daughter's chest._

" _I'm s-sorry, Orca…" she sobbed. "I-I didn't want to ever resort to this…"_

* * *

"And so after this battle," Coral whispered, "I wrote _The Tragedy of Orca_ to honor my eldest daughter. I've never forgiven myself for what I had to do. Now I know you're going to say, 'But she would have killed you' and 'She'd lost her soul', but she was still my daughter. There's not a sane mother in this world who could forgive herself for killing her daughter." She looked hard at Tsunami and Anemone, wiping away tears. "I don't think I'll ever stop hating myself over what happened to Orca."


	18. Chapter 17: Before the SeaWing Council

**Chapter 17:  
Before the SeaWing Council**

The SeaWing council chamber had twelve dragon-sized stone pools for each council member, each labeled with tiny emeralds the size of roe that told the name of each member's respective topic. They were arranged in a circle, with small channels running from one to the next and crisscrossing in the center. Coral's pool was next to the defense pool and the communication pool. The dragonet care pool was two pools down from Coral's pool. The queen asks each council member to report status on their topic.

Aquamarine bowed her head in shame before the twelve council members: Tortoise—dragonet care; Lagoon—aquaculture; Piranha—war; Commander Shark—defense; Tsunami's cousin Moray—communication; Whirlpool—magic and publishing; and of course Queen Coral. The other five dragons, whom Tsunami didn't recognize, were in charge of the treasury, justice, medicine, secrets and spies, and hunting, respectively, according to the labels below where they sat in pools of water.

There was an empty spot in the circle for the deceased King Gill, whom Tsunami had killed in Queen Scarlet's arena without knowing he had been her father. Coral knew her husband was dead and, just before this meeting had begun, Tsunami had told her that she killed him, but that she hadn't known Gill was her father. Much to the disagreement of her council members, Coral had decided not to charge Tsunami with murder or patricide, explaining "Queen Scarlet gave her no other choice. She hadn't given my husband any water for months, and he would have done anything for it, even killing Tsunami and drinking her blood. Furthermore, Tsunami didn't know Gill was her father. She will not be charged with any crime relating to my husband's death and that is final!".

But now, there was the matter of Aquamarine's disobeying of Coral's orders not to tell Tsunami about all the mysterious murders of SeaWing princesses and about Orca's death, something which Coral had wanted to wait until the right moment to reveal to Tsunami. She had since done so, but Coral and the council had agreed Aquamarine needed to be punished.

"She is your eldest daughter!" Whirlpool was saying, angrily flashing his scales to say something in Aquatic that was probably best left unspoken. "Aquamarine knew better than to tell Tsunami about your daughters' murders and how Orca died! I vote we throw her into the dungeon with your prisoners for one full moon cycle, and maybe she'll learn to keep her mouth shut."

"Poetic," Coral said sarcastically.

 _So that's where I get it from,_ thought Tsunami. _To think I've blamed Glory for my sarcasm all these years._

"Next!" Coral said in a way that told everyone she wasn't too impressed with Whirlpool's argument.

Moray sighed. "I hate to be against my cousin on something, and I hate to agree with Whirlpool even more, but he is right, your majesty. Aquamarine must be punished for what she did. It was your decision that your daughters would only hear about those things from you, and no one else, only when the time was right."

"Commander Shark?" Coral's head spun around to her brother, on Gill's side of the family. "Do you have anything to add?"

"I do not, your majesty," Shark said, with a glare at Aquamarine that clearly made his niece feel more unworthy than she already did. Tsunami felt bad for her and wanted to speak on her sister's behalf, but something told her she was only allowed to observe this meeting, as a part of learning the 'how's of SeaWing culture' aspect of being a SeaWing.

 _I wonder if all trials work this way in the Kingdom of the Sea,_ she wondered. Tsunami still remembered all those scrolls Starflight had read to them under the Claws of the Clouds Mountains about the judicial systems of all the tribes. Normally a convicted dragon was brought before a judge, sometimes the queen but it could also be another qualified dragon, and a jury of a dozen chosen dragons no younger than thirteen years. This was nothing like that, Tsunami realized. There was no jury, no lawyer defending Aquamarine, and no lawyer arguing against her. It was _only_ the SeaWing Council.

Coral looked at everyone.

"Does anyone else have anything to add?" she asked. Nobody said a word. "Well, then it is settled. Aquamarine, you have been determined guilty of the charge of disobeying direct orders from your queen, and will be punished accordingly." She paused to consider Aquamarine's punishment. A dragon's was always only the queen or king's decision in the Kingdom of the Sea. "You will spend the next month guarding the Royal Hatchery. I do not expect you to leave the chamber except when one of my guards brings you a meal twice a day. Am I understood?"

"Yes, mother—er, your majesty," Aquamarine whispered shamefully. "I am sorry I disrespected you."

"Apology accepted. Now don't do it again, and get your tail moving to the Royal Hatchery at once. I will be there shortly with Commander Shark and Whirlpool to better explain what it is I want you to do."

* * *

"That is not necessary," Coral told the two present Royal Hatchery guards as she, Shark, and Whirlpool made their way down the tunnel towards them. "I told Aquamarine to come here, so please, lower your spears. This is her punishment for disobeying my orders." She looked at the guards and they nodded, seeming to know which orders she means. "You two are relieved from guard duty for the next month, but if you sense something is wrong, I expect you to check on the Royal Hatchery and Aquamarine immediately. Do not leave your barrack—" She motioned towards a doorway off to the left side of the corridor. "—unless you have explicit orders from me. Understood?"

"Yes, your majesty," the two guards said, with a respective bow of their heads.

"Then you are dismissed," Coral concluded their briefing and they disappeared into the barrack.

Coral handed one of their spears to Aquamarine. "This will be your only companion for the next month, besides your unhatched brothers and sisters and Orca's statue, of course. I want you to be in the Royal Hatchery at _all times_ for the next month, sleeping lightly so you can guard your brothers and sisters from the assassin, whomever he or she may be. That is all you are to do. Now go. And remember, when your meals do arrive, _no eating in the Royal Hatchery_. The blood will only attract sharks for days, and we won't even be able to keep my eggs there until the blood has been cleaned up, and all intruding sharks have been killed."

Without any words, Aquamarine bowed respectively, and then entered the royal hatchery. She heard Shark and Whirlpool shutting the door behind her.

"Send two of your guards with a meal for Aquamarine after sunset," Coral ordered them. "I mean it. She can't guard her siblings if she's slowly starving to death."

* * *

 _I always hate being in this place alone,_ Aquamarine thought, for she could not speak in this submerged room. She was curled up by the eggs that would be her baby sisters one day; there was only one of them. _You'll be the last daughter mother' had with King Gill._ Her spear lay by her side, ready for her to snatch up immediately should she need to. If the assassin was going to show his or her face tonight, she'd be ready for it. Nobody was going to crush more of her would-be sisters on her watch. _That statue gives me the creeps. I don't know why mother insists on keeping it in the Royal Hatchery. It's like it's watching me with its sapphire eyes. I can't stand it!_

 _Maybe I can rest for a moment. They said I could sleep lightly. Plus I'm right by the door. If some assassin comes through it, I'll hear them, and even if not, they're bound to step on me and wake up me._

Aquamarine yawned, sending some bubbles through the water, and closed her eyes.

 _Ssssssccccccrrrrrrraaaaaapppppppe._

Aquamarine's eyes shot open immediately and she found herself in a battle position, holding the spear as if she'd used one for her entire life. It'd sounded as if the door beside her had scraped open, but when she looked, Aquamarine realized it hadn't opened at all.

 _Keep your cool, Aquamarine,_ she told herself. _You're just hearing things that aren't really there. Nobody's in here but you, your brothers and sisters, and that stupid statue._

She laid down again and closed her eyes. Then—

 _Sccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapppppppeee._

The sound of stone scrapping was louder than ever. It made Aquamarine's head pound. Once again, when she jumped up, the door was closed.

 _I don't understand. That's the only way in and out of the Royal Hatchery. What can be making that horrible noise?_

She turned so her back was against Orca's statue to investigate the door and—

 _Sssssssscccccccccrrrrrrrrraaaaaappppppppeeeeeeeeee._

 _What is going on?!_ Aquamarine nearly screamed this time. She picked up her spear again. There was something in here with her, there had to be. But as she looked around, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. If she could consider the statue "ordinary" anyway. She hated it. It gave her chills just to look at it.

 _Hold on a minute. That statue wasn't—no, that doesn't make sense. I'm losing my mind. But I swear that statue was in a different position when I came in here. It wasn't crooked on the pedestal before. It had been facing the doorway!_

 _Someone's in here with me, and they're playing a sick joke on me as a part of my punishment. They have to be. An animus dragon could easily move that statue. But how did I not see anyone else in here when I circled around the entire chamber before setting down? Maybe…no, that makes no sense. How would a full-grown SeaWing fit inside that pedestal?_

It happened yet again when Aquamarine closed her eyes and sighed.

 _Ssssscccccrrrraaaappppeeee._

She nearly yelled "Who is there?!" but ended up swallowing saltwater as soon as she opened her mouth. _I'm glad I'm a SeaWing! I can handle taking in a little saltwater._ Regardless, she choked on it as it rushed down her gullet.

 _Sssssscccccccccrrrrraaaaaaaaaapppppppppeeeeee._

Aquamarine angrily flashed a message in Aquatic, knowing it'd be seen in this dark chamber.

 _If someone is there, show yourself right now!_

 _So I can put this spear clean through you,_ she thought.

 _Sssscccccccccccrrrrrrraaaaaaapppppppppeeeee._

 _NO!_ Aquamarine thought in terror. _By the moons, this can't be! NO! I must be having a nightmare!_

* * *

"This just doesn't feel right to me," one of the relieved Royal Hatchery guards said as he ripped apart a large tuna in the barrack. "Aquamarine has no combat experience. What is she going to do if the assassin shows up? She's never handled a spear before."

"It's not our concern, unfortunately," said the other guard, as he ripped apart a squid. "We have to follow her majesty's orders. You know that."

"HELP!"

"What in the name of the three moons?" The first guard nearly choked on the chunk of tuna he'd just ripped off.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"That sounds like Aquamarine!"

"NO!"

"It is! It must be the assassin!" The second guard grabbed up his spear. "Hurry!"

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME! I COMMAND YOU TO GET AWAY!"

"Come on!"

"SOMEBODY! HELP!"

"We're coming Aquamarine! Just hang on!"

"No no no no no no no! GAH! HELP! OH, PLEASE SAVE ME! ANYBODY! AHH!"

"Aquamarine?!"

Suddenly, a piercing scream reached the two guards' ears as they crashed into the Royal Hatchery's door.

"Come on, open it! She's in danger!"

"It…won't budge!"

The first guard jabbed his spear into it, but it didn't work.

"NO! AH! AH! NO! HEL—AHH! GET OFF ME! NO! AHH! _HELP_! AHHHHHHHHH!"

"Just hang on a little longer!"

"NO! DON'T! GET THAT AWAY FROM—" Aquamarine's voice trailed off into a scream. Beyond that, the two guards heard what sounded like a body being thrown around, stepped on, stabbed, kicked, and bones snapping, all the while screams of pure agony echoed behind the door. The last thing either guard heard was the sound of flesh tearing, a final scream of "HEEELLLLLLLPPPPPPPP!" and a spine chilling _Ssssssscccccccrrrrraappppppeeeeeee_ before everything became silent in the Royal Hatchery.

"I got it!"

The door finally came open and they rushed in, but they were too late.

"No!"

"Aquamarine!"

* * *

Coral wanted to throw up, as she watched her eggs, which remarkably hadn't been harmed, being hauled out of the Royal Hatchery before any sharks would come in, attracted by all the blood floating into the ocean through the warm water jets. Her guards were taking them to the back-up Royal Hatchery until this chamber could be cleaned.

 _How did this happen?!_ Coral demanded from the two guards in Aquatic, as she swam around the Royal Hatchery. _Did any of you see_ anything _?!_

Commander Shark and the other SeaWing Council members were lost for words at the horrific sight. There was blood and fragments of flesh and bone all over the Royal Hatchery and Orca's statue. Clouds of red floated through the water. Right at the base of the statue's pedestal lay the shredded and broken body of a female SeaWing. Her neck and back were bent and twisted in ways no dragon's body should ever be. Whoever had attacked Aquamarine nearly snapped her in half like a twig.

Coral approached the body in tears. She felt miserable.

 _Oh, Aquamarine…_ she thought.

 _H-How could this happen?!_ she flashed to the others with her scales. _Oh, it's all my fault! I made Aquamarine come in here to guard these eggs, and now the assassin k-killed her!_

Commander Shark answered her back in Aquatic: _Your majesty, you can't blame yourself for this. Aquamarine had weapons to defend herself with. It was just no good. Whoever this assassin is, he's an expert fighter. Aquamarine could have had the best spears we could've given her, and it wouldn't have made any difference._

 _Aquamarine!_ Coral flashed. _My baby…I'm sorry I locked you in with your murderer…I'll never forgive myself!_

 _What is she saying?_ Moray flashed at Whirlpool.

 _The assassin must have been hidden in here somewhere,_ Whirlpool answered. _As if he or she knew Aquamarine would be in here. There is a spy and a traitor in our midsts._

Coral's face suddenly became filled with rage.

 _I want someone guarding Tsunami at all times,_ she decreed. _And for now on, only I will watch over Anemone. Her babysitter is relieved from the duty until this assassin has been dealt with. I'll rip whoever is doing this to shreds! Shark!_ she flashed at her brother. _Get some dragons in here to clean the Royal Hatchery so my eggs can incubate properly. The back-up Royal Hatchery isn't as ideal. They can only be there for half a day, at most._

 _It will take almost that long to clean up this mess and get all the blood out of the water, your majesty,_ Shark flashed back.

 _Then you'd better have them get started._ The flashing of Coral's scales suddenly became slower. _Now you must excuse me…I must begin planning Aquamarine's funeral…_

 _I'll come with you,_ Moray offered.

 _No. I-I want to be alone…But please, send Tsunami and Anemone to my royal chamber immediately, Moray. I don't want anyone else telling them what happened to their sister here._


	19. Chapter 18: Tsunami's Choice

**Author's note:** I know, people are going to point out this is similar to events in _The Lost Heir_ , but since this story is non-canon to the book series, and that the scene where Orca's statue battled Tsunami is one of my favorite moments in _The Lost Heir_ (as creepy as it is when the statue comes alive), I had to include my own take on the scene since Tsunami is in the Kingdom of the Sea.

Anyway, unless I get chapter 19 finished today (it's going slowly), this will be the last chapter I post today. It's all caught up again. (I'm writing so fast in general I forget to post the chapters once they're proofread, so that was why I posted so many chapters in one day again.)

* * *

 **Chapter 18:  
Tsunami's Choice**

"What do you mean Aquamarine…is d-dead?" Tsunami stammered.

"Someone…m-murdered her tonight, in the Royal Hatchery," Coral whispered mournfully. "We don't know who did it, but I swear to the moons when I find out, I'll rip them apart just like they did Aquamarine! Or maybe I'll send them to Blister so she can gift their body to Burn to have it stuffed and mounted on her wall!" Her mood shifted just as quickly as it became wrathful, back to one of brief. "Oh, Tsunami! I don't know what I am going to do. No matter what I have done for the past nine years, the assassin has still managed to kill my daughters, and we're not any closer to finding out who than we were before…Maybe I should have listened to Blister when she said we should relocate the Royal Hatchery to another underwater palace."

Tsunami stood up. "I volunteer. I can protect the last egg from this assassin. I'll find out who it is and drag his sorry carcass back to you. That's if I don't rip him apart first, for killing my sisters all these years."

Coral jumped up so fast that Anemone was nearly yanked away from where she'd been sleeping by the cord that attacked their harnesses to each other.

"Tsunami—" she gasped. "No. You can't. It's too dangerous. If whoever this assassin is managed to kill Aquamarine like that, just think what he could do to a younger dragon like you!"

"You don't know me. Neither does whoever did this. I'm more experienced than any of you think. I may not be good at Aquatic, or with lessons from that jerk Whirlpool, but I can fight. I can defend my family, if you just trust me."

"But it will be dangerous. If I let you do this and the assassin kills you too, I won't ever forgive myself, Tsunami. You're the daughter I've hoped would come back to me for years. Now that I-I'm just getting to know you, I don't want to lose you."

"Send me into the Royal Hatchery with your best spear once it's been cleared and the eggs returned," Tsunami pressed. "I survived years of fighting in Scarlet's arena. I think I can handle one assassin."

"Just promise me, please, that you'll be careful."

"I will, mother," Tsunami whispered. "This damn assassin will learn he's messed with the wrong family all these years when he meets me!"

"Tsunami!" Coral exclaimed.

"Sorry."

Coral's expression softened. "Er. It's alright. I know you're angry. I am too. But please, try not to talk that way in the future."

 _If only you knew it's because of all the SkyWings I had to listen to for all those years in Scarlet's arena and our guardians that I talk that way,_ she thought, then instead, said, "I'll be right back, mother. I need a moment alone to think about some things."

"Of course."

The truth was, Tsunami didn't need a moment to think about things. Her mind was set on spending all night in the Royal Hatchery tonight—her mother had said it would be cleaned up before then—but she'd seen something out of the corner of her eye that she wanted to investigate.

Before she knew it, a male SeaWing was forcing her out of the hallway into another room. The door shut behind him.

Tsunami clawed the male across the face.

"Ow!"

"You!" she gasped. "You're the one that I saw outside the chamber where Whirlpool tried teaching me Aquatic."

"Um. Yeah. That's me. Nice to meet your claws," he added sarcastically. Tsunami liked that.

"What is your name?"

"Riptide," he answered. "You're not going to try and rip my nose off again, are you?"

"No," Tsunami weakly chuckled. "And I'm Tsunami," she added.

"So you found out how much of a jerk Whirlpool can be. I could teach you Aquatic better, and faster, than he ever could, if you let me."

"I would like that, but I have something else I must do."

Riptide cocked his head in confusion.

"I'll be spending the entire night in the Royal Hatchery with my mother's eggs once it's been cleaned," Tsunami explained. "I'm going to catch whoever this assassin is in the act, and if I can, bring him to my mother. That's if I don't rip him apart first."

"But you can't!" Riptide protested. "It's too dangerous."

"Now you sound like my mother."

"I never thought I'd be saying this, but you should listen to her," Riptide said. "I know I've just met you, but I don't want anything to happen to you either."

Tsunami blinked. She hated thinking this way now, when one of her sisters was just murdered, but she couldn't help it. "Are you seriously hitting on me already?"

Riptide started waving his talons. "No, no, no, no! It's just…you're a pretty dragon…" Tsunami glared at him. _Oops._ "I mean, I wouldn't want you to die."

"You _are_ hitting on me! And now you're trying to backpedal!"

Tsunami was ready to hit him.

"No! Listen!" Riptide pleaded. "Your mother. She wanted me to watch over you, make sure nothing happens to you. That is why I was watching you that day outside the chamber when you were learning Aquatic with Whirlpool. If you spend a night in the Royal Hatchery, you may not see your friends at the Summer Palace again. For their sake, reconsider this. I don't know what has been going on, with these murders of your sisters, but I don't want to see you die too."

They suddenly heard Coral calling. "Tsunami?"

"I have to go, Riptide," she whispered. Before she went out the door, she looked back at him. "Thank you."

"What were you doing in there?" Coral asked when Tsunami came out of the barrack.

"Riptide just told me everything. That you'd told him to keep watch on me. Now I know why he was watching me during my Aquatic lessons. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I did it for your safety. We don't know who is killing my daughters. I didn't want you going around the deep palace without someone keeping an eye on you while this monster is out there. I've lost enough daughters. I won't lose you too!"

"Don't worry about me, mother. I'll be the one to catch whoever is responsible."

"I see there is no stopping you," Coral sighed. "Just try not to get his blood all over the Royal Hatchery. And for moons' sake, be careful."

* * *

Tsunami was amazed by how quickly her mother's servants had cleaned up all the blood, but she couldn't stop thinking about how much Aquamarine must have suffered at the hands of the assassin. She wouldn't sleep well the entire night, but at least she had the best spear Commander Shark could find, and had been trained for hours to use it, unlike Aquamarine.

 _Why do I keep wanting to blame mother for what happened to Aquamarine?_ Tsunami wondered as she laid down by the last female egg. The warm water from the jets was uncomfortably hot against her belly, but she'd be damned if she didn't stay close to this egg until morning. Aquamarine was on Tsunami's mind as she rested, constantly shifting her eyes from the spear to the egg and back.

 _No assassin will get you on my watch, little sister,_ she thought. _I won't let anything happen to you or any more of my sisters._ Tsunami immediately thought of Anemone. The assassin could never get to her, for she was always attached to to their mother with that harness; furthermore, Coral had told Tsunami that she slept in the Royal Hatchery with Anemone when she was still an egg. That had been before Gill was captured by the SkyWings, so the SeaWings hadn't been without leadership, but Coral wasn't able to do that anymore since Gill had been captured by the SkyWings.

Tsunami yawned.

 _So tired,_ she thought. The warm water from the jets was making her sleepy. But she was too uneasy to sleep heavily. It was still fresh in her mind that this was where the assassin murdered Aquamarine earlier today. Even if the assassin didn't show his face tonight, sleep may not come to Tsunami for that reason. Knowing there's an assassin lurking around in the deep palace just made things worse on Tsunami.

 _The assassin has to be someone who is always here in the Deep Palace,_ Tsunami thought. _Aquamarine told me the SeaWings at the Summer Palace rarely leave it, unless they have a reason from mother to do so. That leaves the suspect pool small. But it can't be anyone in the SeaWing Council. They'd never do such a thing to mother. And my mother would definitely_ not _destroy her own eggs. I've seen how much she loves me and all her other daughters._

 _Wait. Wait. I wouldn't put any of this past Whirlpool, and he's on the SeaWing council. I didn't like him from the moment I met him._ Tsunami still remembered how she and Coral had caught Whirlpool telling Anemone "You are my key to the throne…". Those words had sent a chill down her spine, but her mother had somehow not heard him utter them. It didn't help that Riptide had warned her not to trust him. _I almost hope it's Whirlpool. I'd have no problem stabbing him in the heart with a spear for how he treated me. Nobody treats me like thrown out fish guts from last night's dinner._ Especially _not some old washed-up SeaWing that thinks he's the best thing to happen to mother's kingdom since cooked fish. Whirlpool is the scum of this ocean and I've only known him less than two days._

Tsunami nearly jumped out of her scales when she thought she heard something moving. She flashed her scales as she scurried around the hatchery, but found no signs of what it could've been.

 _Great. Now you're hearing things, Tsunami,_ she thought.

 _Sssscccrrrraaaaapppppeee._

Tsunami screamed and gulped down a few ounces of saltwater.

 _But that was no trick! That was real! But I don't see anyone!_

 _Sssssccccrraapppeee._

 _What is going on?! Somebody has to be messing with me. But who? It's just me and Orca's statue. I'd know if another dragon had snuck in here when the guards shut the door behind me._

 _Sssssssssssssscccccccrrrrrrrraaaaaaaapppppppeeeeeeeeeee._

 _What in the name of the three moons is that?!_

Shuddering, Tsunami growled at Orca's statue as if to ask it "What are you looking at?", as her scales flashed nervously in the dark.

 _Sssssscccccrrrrrraaaapppppppeeeeee._

 _What the hell?!_

Tsunami couldn't believe her eyes. Orca's statue just moved on its pedestal so it was staring at the last female egg with its sapphire eyes.

 _The assassin is no dragon…_ Tsunami thought, feeling a rush of horror through her body. _At least not a breathing one. This is why mother and her guards could never find any signs of an assassin. It's always been here, hiding, waiting, for the last nine years. But how do I kill a cursed statue?_ Tsunami screamed again. _It's going after the egg! Save the egg first, kill the living statue later!_

Tsunami dived towards the egg and took it just as Orca's statue stepped down where it had been, crushing the water jets instead.

 _She's not safe yet. And neither am I. Orca's statue must only kill my mother's daughters, and only awakens when there's no one but her daughters in the area. That means I am a target._

"AHH!" Tsunami screeched when Orca's statue's talons ripped through her gills, sending out a cloud of blood.

 _Think later, live now,_ flashed through Tsunami's mind.

She dodged another strike, then went for her spear, and used it to pop out one of the sapphire eyes. Orca's statue didn't react, however. It just kept on coming after Tsunami and her unhatched sister.

 _Oh, not now!_

Just as soon as Tsunami had thought that, her unhatched sister became a hatched one. The egg shell splintered and cracked, then flew off as a tiny head peaked out for the first time.

 _You sure chose a hell of a time to hatch, baby sister,_ Tsunami thought miserably. _But I still don't know how I am going to stop this statue from killing us! Maybe if I scream loud enough—_ Tsunami had to cut her thought short to dodge a swipe form Orca's statue. _—some of mother's guards will hear me and come get the door open. They should still be in the barrack._

Tsunami dodged another strike. She heard her baby sister starting to cry.

 _I'm about to cry too! I'm being chased by a living statue! But the guards that let me in here must still be in the barracks,_ she resumed her previous thought. _Right? RIGHT?!_

* * *

 _CRASH!_

One of the guards nearly flipped over their desk, a piece of preserved coral.

"What?"

"That sounded like it came from the Royal Hatchery."

"You heard her majesty. She said if we heard anything suspicious, to investigate immediately. Now come on."

 _CRASH!_

That was enough to convince the two guards to begin running.

"You heard that as clear as I did! Hurry! Someone must be in the Royal Hatchery with Tsunami!"

"We're coming Tsunami!" the female guard screeched.

"Get the door open now!" commanded the other.

"I'm trying! Can't you tell?!"

Another _CRASH!_ louder than the last two hit the guards' ears.

"Just hang on, Tsunami!"

"Almost…there!" the female panted, as she and her fellow guard forced the ends of their spears into both sides of the doorway, trying to force it open.

"Remind me again why we were so stupid to shut this door tight?!"

"We can blame ourselves later! "Just worry about saving Tsunami now!"

* * *

"Come on, get the door open!" Tsunami cried.

She'd pinned the statue with her spear forced into its jaws, but Tsunami knew that wouldn't hold forever, so she was trying with all her might to get the door open. She forgot she was even bleeding from many deep gashes, her heart was racing so much. _I know someone's out there! Please hurry!_ She could hear their frantic scratching against the door as whoever it is is trying to get the door open from the outside. Tsunami began clawing back against the door, knowing it was the only way whoever was outside the Royal Hatchery would hear her. Her voice wouldn't go anywhere in the submerged chamber.

And then—

Tsunami felt sharp, marble claws grab into her haunches and dig deep into them, before she is pulled away from the door. Her claws scrap across the stone floor.

"HEEELLLLLPPPPPP!"

But Tsunami knew her cry would fall on nobody's ears. It was lost in the water.

* * *

 _CRASH!_

 _CRASH!_

"I…GOT IT!" the male said triumphantly.

The two guards rushed on into the Royal Hatchery and nearly fell over sideways when their eyes fell upon the scene before them. Orca's statue was not on its pedestal, which had been smashed to smithereens.

Tsunami was in bad shape. Her body was covered with more than a dozen bleeding scratches, one of her wings was broken, her left arm dislocated, one of her gills ripped open, and a large tear in her belly.

"What did you two do?!" Tsunami sobbed in agony. "The statue just stopped as soon as you opened the door!" She pointed at it with her one good arm.

"W-W-What—"

"I can't even beli—"

"Yeah, well, believe it," she whimpered and grabbed her bleeding side. "This really happened. Now someone get…me and these eggs out of here…before my…blood draws in sharks!"

And then her world went black as she fainted into unconsciousness.

* * *

"You aren't going to believe us your majesty, but we saw first hand _what_ has been killing your daughters for nine years!"

"What do you mean 'what'?" Coral exclaimed. "How is it not a 'who'?!"

"Orca's statue…It was alive! It did that to Tsunami!"

"Oh, my baby!" Coral sobbed, upon noticing the gauze over her gills and many other severe injuries that was already stained by a spot of blood. Her wing was in a unique sling, as was her dislocated arm. A gauze covered up the stitches in her gills and stomach where she'd almost been ripped open by the statue. "Are you going to be okay?" Then Coral realized how stupid she sounded. She'd asked that due to her motherly instinct clouding her judgment.

"About as okay as I can be…I just had my body ripped open by a walking statue…"

Coral wanted so badly to hug Tsunami but she knew that action would probably cause her severe pain, so she backed off.

"I-I'll have it destroyed i-immediately," her mother stammered. "GUARDS! Take Orca's statue out of my palace and destroy it somewhere in the ocean." Coral turned back to her daughters, Tsunami and the newly hatched one which she had let Tsunami name Auklet. "Now I think I understand what Orca's last words before she died meant…She enchanted that statue to kill any future daughters so she would be the queen as long as possible after she killed me. And I also now understand what happened to Orca that day. She couldn't control her animus magic anymore. It drove her insane…"

"If it's alright with you, mother…" Tsunami began weakly. She'd lost a lot of blood before the guards that saved her got here to the infirmary. "…I'd r-rather go back to the summer palace and see my friends again. I t-think Auklet would like to come with me."

"I can support that," Coral whispered. She was as shaken up by all this as her two daughters were, and she wasn't even the one that had been chased around the Royal Hatchery by Orca's Statue. "You'll need someone to back you up when you tell your friends what happened."

"Yes," whispered Tsunami. "I think I would like—no, I know I'll need the support right now. Can someone else come along with us?" She paused to think for a moment. "Riptide maybe? I think I need him with me too right about now…"


	20. Chapter 19: The Icy Dungeon

**Chapter 19:  
The Icy Dungeon**

"You two are telling me some marble statue is what has been killing your daughters for the past nine years?" Kestrel's jaw nearly hit the beach as those words escaped her mouth.

Glory was next. "I think you can pardon Webs now," she whispered. "He's gone now, but if Webs hadn't drugged your guards and taken Tsunami's egg from the hatchery, she would have been destroyed just like so many of her sisters. Webs saved her life."

"Yes. Yes. You are right. I wish I could tell Webs I forgive him. But you said he was murdered by one of Scarlet's daughters," she added with a bit of guilt in her tone. "He passed on with me still angry at him. But now he deserves my thanks for saving Tsunami from Orca's statue, which I should tell you all, I had my guards take out of the Deep Palace and destroy in the ocean miles away."

"B-but, how did Orca's statue come alive in the first place?" Peril stammered. "It makes no sense."

"Orca, my daughter, was an animus, and I never gave it a second thought until now. She enchanted her statue to kill any of my future daughters so that after she'd defeated me in our battle for the throne, she would rule for many years without any competition. Not that my daughters would have stood a chance against an animus dragon that had lost her mind and soul. But she hadn't considered what would happen if I somehow defeated her, which I did by chance thanks to this—" She waved her tail around so they saw the Narwhal tusk tied around it. "—which she'd run right into and died as a result of." Coral wiped away tears, then went silent.

"Mother," Tsunami whispered. "I know you want to get to know me better, and I do as well, but my friends and I, we must be going. The fate of Pyrrhia rests in our talons. Only the five of us can end this war."

"Promise me you'll come see me once the war is over?" Coral embraced her daughter, holding her talons gently.

"I promise. As soon as the war is over and we've chosen the next SandWing queen, I'll be back. I don't know when that will be, but it is a promise I intend to keep."

"Also promise me you'll take care out there. I know how dangerous the above-water world can be."

"I will," Tsunami whispered weakly. "I'm just gonna need to rely on my friends more than I ever have." She glanced at her broken wing. It ached more than when Orca's statue stepped on it.

"But…" Coral whispered. "…how will you get to…Where did you all intend to go anyway?"

"The Mud Kingdom," Clay said.

"How will you get my daughter there? She cannot fly."

Riptide stepped forward. He'd been quiet ever since Coral and Shark brought Tsunami back to the summer palace; Sunny had told him about what happened to his father, Webs.

"They talked this over. We will all take turns if we must, besides Kestrel, but I will carry Tsunami on my back the entire way."

Coral glared harshly at Riptide. The others, not even Starflight when he secretly tried reading her mind, didn't understand why.

"Take good care of her, Riptide," she said, then Starflight picked up on her thoughts finally: _If anything happens to my daughter, I'll send Blister after you to have your head._

* * *

"We need to stop here for the night," Clay said. "Tsunami and Riptide need to rest."

"Out in the open?" Glory gasped. "Are you crazy?"

"Of course not. There is a scavenger den just over there. It's in ruins, but we can spend the night there. The Mud Kingdom is only a few hours flight away, but we all need sleep now. Especially Tsunami and Riptide."

"You expect us to sleep in a _scavenger's den_!" Glory seethed.

"Glory," Tsunami groaned. "Just shut up. Your yelling is making my body ache more than it already is."

"Fine!" Glory snapped. "I'll just travel at the back of the group." _So I don't feel tempted to kick your face in._

Unbeknownst to any of them, as they found resting spots in or around the ruins of the scavenger den, a lone NightWing was watching them from the forest. He glared at them all, slowly turning his glance from one dragon to another, debating in his mind which of them he should slash the throat of first.

* * *

 _The Ice Kingdom…_

The icy door to the dungeon screeched open, but the SandWing didn't react.

 _It's probably just my guards bringing me days-old fish again,_ Quicksand thought. _Why couldn't they have just killed me? I can't stand three more years of this._

"Quicksand?" a female voice called.

 _That's not my guards,_ he thought, slowly raising his head to see who it was. "B-Blaze?"

"I came to see you," she continued. "I finally convinced Glacier to let me come down here." Blaze was wearing a fur coat to keep warm down here, as usual. When she saw Quicksand exposed to the frigid climate, she wanted to give it to him, but he shook his head no and told her to keep herself warm.

"How did you do that?" Quicksand asked through chattering teeth.

"I told her she had no right to keep me from my future spouse for three years. Glacier realized I was right, that she'd want to see her future spouse if she were in my position. The guards outside the dungeon know to let me stay down here as long as I wish."

Quicksand shivered. _And I thought it was cold in Glacier's palace. It seems like the desert up there compared to this._ "I wish I could thank her," he whispered. "She's being a lot nicer than a queen should be to a convicted criminal." He laughed weakly, but his grin disappeared when he noticed Blaze was glaring at him. "Too soon, I know. I'm just trying to keep myself in good spirits down here. That's hard to do when your only companions are other criminals."

"Shut up ye little shit!" an imprisoned IceWing roared. "You accidentally killed your whore's niece, that doesn't make you anything like us."

"See what I mean?" Quicksand asked bitterly.

"I do." Blaze turned around. "Excuse me for a moment." She stepped away from Quicksand's cell.

"What are you doing over here you ditzy wh-"

Quicksand saw a bright flash of orange erupt from around the corner where the prisoner had shouted. Cries of agony followed briefly, then ceased by the time Blaze had returned to her fiancé's cell looking satisfied by what she'd just done. The smell of a burning IceWing lofted through the icy dungeon.

"Blaze!" Quicksand gasped. "You can't just go around killing criminals!"

Blaze shrugged. "I don't think Glacier would miss that one."

"But you can't just murder! That basically landed me here. That makes you no different to Six-Claws, Scarlet, Blister and Burn!"

"I'll tell you what Glacier told me about him. He was in here serving a life sentence for murdering one of Glacier's daughters. He would've died down here anyway, so I did Glacier a favor to repay the ones she's done for me all these years."

"Stop fighting!" a raspy male voice suddenly hissed. "You have a chance to see your dad, take it!"

"What?" Blaze gasped.

"S-Six-Claws?"

Before Blaze and Quicksand knew it, Quicksand was being led out of his cell over to another by two IceWing guards (who didn't seem to care that Blaze had burned that prisoner to death).

"Make it fast," the first guard snarled. "Glacier said you only have a short time to talk with your son before we throw you back in your cell."

"Six-Claws here just got out of his second trial," said the second, a female. "The jury decided on his fate a few moments ago." She sounded much nicer than the male guard.

"What was the decision?!" Quicksand questioned at his son as Blaze rapidly spun around, but all he got was a silent look of submission as the guards began dragging him further away.

"Six-Claws?" Quicksand questioned, wondering why his son never spoke a word.

"Please, dad. I don't want to speak like this. It is decided. There is…nothing more I can say. I messed up. By the three moons, I messed up big time."

"But…"

"That's enough! You've spoken your last words!" The male IceWing guard pulled Quicksand back towards his own cell, giving the female guard a reason to growl in annoyance at him.

Blaze covered her snout in horror with her talons. The same horror she felt coursed through Quicksand. He began screaming and tried to break away from the male guard.

"Six-Claws! SIX-CLAWS!"

"Silence SandWing," hissed the male guard holding Six-Claws in the other cell. "The jury's decision is final. There are no second chances for murderers. You'll never see him again!"

Blaze collapsed. "No!"

"Six-Claws! Bring him back! I want to hear from Queen Glacier! Are you listening to me?!"

"It was her majesty's decision, too," said the male guard again. "You should've known how this works from your trial."

Blaze didn't believe that for a minute, but she was too devastated to voice her thoughts.

"SIX-CLAWS!" Quicksand screamed as he was thrown back in his cell. He immediately got back up and rushed forward just as the door was slammed shut in his face. "I love you, son!"

Six-Claws tried freeing himself from his guards' grasps, but barely succeeded. His ribs were bandaged, one eye was covered up with a gauze, and one arm was in a sling, so he was in no condition to fight back. He was too weak to even scratch one of the guards with the deadly barb on the end of his tail.

"I love you too, dad!" he called back. "I'm sorry we'll never get to know each other now. I wish I'd realized I messed up earlier. Serving Scarlet was a mistake. Now it's cost me my life and your chance of knowing me." Six-Claws looked at his guards, then back to his father and Blaze. "I'm sorry for all of this." Then he smiled. "I'll see you again one day."

"In Hell, maybe," the male guard muttered.

"Shut up you prick," the female guard hissed. She subsequently cracked him across the head with her tail, drawing blood. "Don't ruin the last moment they'll ever have together just because you never had any parents yourself." She cracked him across the head with her spiked tail again, just to make sure he wouldn't say anything else.

"Goodbye, dad," Six-Claws concluded. "Blaze. Please take care of him for me." The SandWing looked at his guards again. The male was complaining about his head aching because of his partner, whereas she was in tears just as Blaze and Quicksand were. "You can take me now. I'm ready. But first…" Six-Claws used his good arm to attack the male guard, who screamed as talons cut across his left eye. "I was raised to never go down without a fight, no matter how grim the situation looks," Six-Claws muttered as he was finally led away by his guards, his heart aching the more he heard his father's cries of anguish. He could no longer hear Blaze and Quicksand. "That's one thing Scarlet did right in the end."

"I'm so sorry, Quicksand," Blaze whispered. She wished she could embrace him, but the bars hampered her.

Quicksand turned his back towards her. "I…I think I want to be alone, Blaze," he whispered. "I don't feel like talking. Please, go back into the palace so you are warmer."

"But with you is where I want to be," Blaze said softly. "I don't care how cold it is."

"But I do. And I want to grieve my son alone. That's all I ask from you, your majesty."

Blaze sniffed. She wiped tears away before they froze to her snout. "If that is what you want," she whispered. "I will come to check on you in a short time."

* * *

"It is done, your majesty," said the female guard who had escorted Six-Claws through the dungeon to the execution chamber. "I feel sick to my stomach now, executing Six-Claws before he got to know his father, but it is done. And so am I. It is time I retire from the execution business. After this time, I can't do it anymore. I split up a father and son who'd just met each other three days ago, and never got to bond with one another. I don't even feel like a dragon anymore."

"I understand," Queen Glacier whispered. "I wish the jury had decided otherwise, but once they have agreed, it was out of my talons no matter how I felt about the matter. If it'd been up to me, I would have let Six-Claws live so he and Quicksand could have bonded. But I couldn't change the decision once it was made, so I'll have to live with what happened to Six-Claws for the rest of my life. I don't think I'll forgive myself, even if I knew nothing could have saved Six-Claws from execution."

Suddenly, a door screeched and Blaze rushed into Glacier's chamber.

"Why couldn't you have done something to sway their decision?!" Blaze asked. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying. "You ripped a family apart before it could even be together! I don't even know you anymore. You allowing this to happen is something my sisters or Scarlet would stoop to! I can't believe you!"

"I wanted to so Quicksand and Six-Claws could get to know each other, but you know as well as I do that I couldn't have," Glacier said. "If anyone told you otherwise, I'll rip their heads off for it." She glared at the two guards whom she'd sent to escort Quicksand. "It is unfortunately against the ancient laws of my kingdom to force a jury's decision. My kingdom would fall into anarchy if I started sparing criminals from execution."

"Not if you choose to do the right thing just once! You haven't seen how many SandWings, and even your fellow IceWings, wanted Six-Claws to go free after he revealed Quicksand is his father!"

"Guards! Please escort Blaze back to her stronghold _outside my palace_ ," Glacier demanded. "She already knows how I feel about myself for what happened. I don't need her shoving it down my throat right now!" she added in a snarl. "I feel terrible enough about what happened to Six-Claws! You've been my friend for these twenty years and I _do_ respect you, but not the way you are acting right now. I'm sorry. I need time away from everyone to think. The rest of you, follow the two guards out of here and do _not_ even think about eavesdropping on me. The last thing anyone that does will ever see is my teeth ripping out your throats if you even dare."

Blaze wanted to spit fire at the two guards that came near her, but she knew the entire palace was made of ice and the results would only immediately turn Glacier, probably her closest friend among all the SandWings and IceWings here, from an ally into an enemy, so she resisted the urge and let them escort her out of Glacier's chamber without conflict.

Once the last dragon had cleared out of her throne room, Glacier returned to her throne. She sighed heavily.

 _Three moons,_ she thought. _What have I done? Blaze is right. Sometimes laws need to change. It's been the same way for 2000 years. Sometimes I wonder if my subjects still even agree with the law that prevents even the queen from overthrowing a jury's ruling in a murder trial. I must speak with my council tomorrow evening to see how they all feel about the matter after this tragedy._

Something clattered out of Glacier's line of sight.

"I told everyone to clear out!" she roared. "I'll have you locked away for insubordination when I find you!"

Glacier furiously stood up from her throne. A confused expression replaced her vicious one when she heard a hissing-like sound. It sounded as if something had been tossed and was soaring around her throne room, but she saw nothing that could make such a noise.

"What in the name of the three moons?" she asked herself.

Glacier took one step forward to look around for the disobedient dragon. She didn't notice the sandy-hued dragon looming behind her on the icy ledge with a large blade until it was too late.

Red-blue blood splattered across the icy floor of Glacier's throne room as her screams faded into oblivion before her cries for help and of agony could fall on anyone's ears.


	21. Chapter 20: Deathbringer

**Chapter 20:  
Deathbringer**

"How are you feeling this morning, Tsunami?" Sunny whispered.

"How would _you_ be feeling if you were walked all over by a living statue?" Tsunami snapped. _What a stupid question to ask me Sunny!_ "What is wrong with you? I'm not feeling any better than I was yesterday! TRY ASKING ME AGAIN NEXT MONTH!"

"ENOUGH!" Kestrel bellowed. "I thought you all were friends? Is this how friends talk to each other? Come on!"

"Humph!" Tsunami snorted.

"Please, Tsunami," Riptide pleaded. "Try to not let your pain cloud your judgment."

"Easy for you to say! You weren't almost ripped apart by a cursed statue!"

Clay suddenly noticed how uneasy Sunny looked.

"What's wrong?" he whispered to the little SandWing-NightWing hybrid.

"What?" Sunny squealed. "Don't tell me I'm the only one here that has felt like we're being watched for a few days." She looked at everyone hopefully, but they all shook their heads. "I'm telling you all, somebody has been following us ever since we stopped to rest at that scavenger den."

"Relax," said Kestrel. "It's probably just MudWings. Besides, the five of you aren't exactly a normal sight. The whole continent knows about the prophecy by now, and seeing as how the MudWings are on Scarlet and Burn's side…"

"Why are we here if that's the case?!" Starflight panicked.

"Are you _wanting_ to get captured again, Clay?" Drakon gasped. "Surely you knew the MudWings are on Scarlet's side in the war. They'd turn you all over to her in a minute once they realize who you are."

Clay sighed. "I need to find my family, at least," he said.

"No!" Glory interrupted. "It's too dangerous, Clay. No offense, but I don't think we can trust any MudWings right now. Drakon said it best. If any MudWings know who we are, we'll be on our way right back to Scarlet's palace, and I don't think she'll let us escape so easily this time."

"Did we even escape easily before?" Tsunami growled. "It took us four years to get out of there."

"You know what I meant," the RainWing muttered.

"Stop!" Sunny whispered harshly. "Whoever is following us, you are going to have them finding us much easier if you don't keep your voices low."

"I'll just set them on fire if they try to hurt any of you," Peril said nonchalantly. "Problem solved."

A branch snapped and everyone immediately went on the alert. Except for Sunny. She immediately hit underneath Clay, shaking like a leaf.

"I told you!" Sunny whispered from underneath Clay. "Now we're in trouble!"

"Ahh!" Glory screamed as blood sprayed from her shoulder, a metal disk embedding itself there.

"What in the name of the three moons?!" Kestrel roared.

"Get it out!"

"No, Glory!" Starflight hissed. "If we just yank that blade out, you'll bleed to death!"

"GET DOWN!" Peril hollered.

No sooner than everyone hit the ground, another metal disk sliced through the air. Had it not been for Peril's warning, Clay would have been decapitated. The MudWing looked up in terror when he realized this, seeing the metal disk embedded in the tree just behind where he'd been standing.

"Th-thanks Peril…" Clay stammered.

"I couldn't just watch the dragon I love get his head taken off," she whispered, blushing. Then Peril felt how everyone glared at her. "But I would've done it for any of you," she quickly added, hoping they wouldn't find it odd.

"Ow. Damn!" Kestrel screeched when a metal disk sliced past her neck. Any further up and it would have been fatal.

"That can't be a MudWing!" Starflight said. "According to the scrolls I used to read under the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, they don't use metal disks as weapons!"

"I think I know what kind of dragon it is," Glory snarled. "An assassin. A NightWing assassin at that." She looked over to Starflight. "Your scrolls talked about how NightWing assassins sometimes use metal disks like those as their assassination weapon of choice."

"But the NightWings are with Blister!" Sunny piped up from under Clay's wing. "Why would Blister want us all dead if we're her ticket to being the next SandWing queen?"

"Maybe she's heard how we're on the run after escaping Scarlet's prison," Tsunami said weakly, "and decided just to have us all killed so she can became the SandWing queen on her own terms. Besides, Blister loves fighting. The war has lasted twenty years and something tells me she's not ready for it to end even if she gets to rule over the SandWings."

A metal disk suddenly flew towards Starflight.

"NO!" Glory cried.

Before she could react, someone tackled Starflight out of the way. A sickening thud followed, then a dragon dropped to the swamp floor, crumbling up and trying to scream.

"Drakon!" Kestrel screamed. "He's hit!"

"No!" Sunny cried.

"Stop the bleeding!" Starflight said without getting him. He was shaking too much, even though Drakon had saved him at the cost of the metal disk that would have taken his head off now being embedded in Drakon's throat.

"Don't speak!" Clay ordered.

Every time Drakon tried to speak, blood gurgled from his neck and dripped down the side of his snout. The disk was embedded deep in his neck, probably lodged in his esophagus.

"What do we do?!" Tsunami screamed.

"There are no healers here we can trust," Kestrel said sadly. "They're all MudWings." She was watching the life slowly fade out of the only real friend she'd had under the Claws of the Cloud Mountains after Webs died. "And the blade is stuck too deep. Even if a dragon tried to remove it properly…" She sniffed and wiped tears away. "…he would still bleed out in seconds before they could stop it."

"Are you saying we should just let him suffer before he dies?!" Glory roared. "What is wrong with you?"

"If you have any suggestions to how to put him out of his misery without him suffering worse, I'd love to hear them!"

"Er. Um," Peril shuttered.

"No!" Kestrel shook her head. "Not Peril! I'm sorry daughter, but I can't let you do that. That's torture!"

"It's not like he isn't suffering already! Peril can end it for him quickly!"

Peril had to dodge a metal disk as they discussed this.

"D-D-D-"

"Drakon?!"

"D-Do…i-i-it…" he whispered.

"What?" Kestrel whispered softly in the dying SkyWing's ear.

"D-D-Do…i-it…P-Peril!" he repeated harshly.

Everyone looked at one another.

"He wants Peril to do it," Sunny whispered. She was fighting back tears, just as everyone else (except for Riptide, for he barely knew Drakon) was.

"We have no other choice, Kestrel!" Clay pleaded. "He's your friend. How can you just let him suffer like this?"

Kestrel closed her eyes tight. "Alright. I can't watch. Just make it quick Peril."

The metal disks suddenly stopped flying, as if the unseen assassin wanted to watch what was about to happen.

"I'll make it fast, Drakon," Peril whispered softly in his ear. "I promise you won't feel any pain from my talons for long." She paused. "Are you ready?"

Drakon only nodded. He couldn't speak long sentences. The metal disk had all but destroyed his vocal cords as well.

As soon as Kestrel looked away, Peril dug her talons deep into Drakon's neck. The smell of burning flesh made everyone sick to their stomachs. Drakon only screamed briefly as his throat disintegrated from Peril's touch, then it was over. His head collapsed and his wings lifelessly fell to the swampy ground.

"He's gone," Peril whispered. She hated herself for doing this, even if she had put a suffering dragon out of his misery. Drakon's neck continued burning even after Peril dislodged her talons from it.

Kestrel stood up, a rage burning in her eyes like nothing the others had ever seen before. Even Peril backed away from her in fear.

"COWARD!" she roared. "You think killing a dragonet is fun! How about you fight me talon-to-talon! I'll make you watch me rip out your stomach before I kill you!"

"Challenge accepted," a voice called from the trees.

Seconds later, a NightWing five years older than Starflight descended. He wore a pouch around his neck that jingled and clattered; it must contain the metal disks that killed Drakon.

"Bastard!" Kestrel hissed.

"I was only doing my job," said the NightWing. "Queen Scarlet paid me well to get rid of her rogue son, so I did. I don't like killing dragonets either, but when a queen pays me to do it, I can't refuse. Scarlet would have killed me."

"You're still a monster!" Sunny cried.

"Burn is a monster," the NightWing countered. "I am only trying to get by in life. And if you really want to blame anyone for me being this way, blame my mother. She raised me to be like this. But she's dead, so good luck with that. I watched lightning strike her, and then Blister and two of her soldiers found her before she died. They cut off her head and wings before my eyes. So blame her if you wish, but that will only give me a personal reason to kill you. I've got plenty of dragons on my personal hit list, including Blister and the two soldiers that killed my mother, and I don't mind adding any of you to it."

"Tell me, was she a lowlife assassin too?" Tsunami spat. "Or did you just not turn out how she wanted?"

"Tsunami!" Sunny gasped. "Why did you say that?"

The NightWing flinched at this insult. Sunny could tell it hurt him on a personal level.

Glory began to sneak up on the assassin while he was distracted. He hadn't seen her to begin with, for she'd camouflaged herself against a tree.

"I'm sorry about your mother," Sunny spoke up from underneath Clay, "but you don't have to be like this, working for evil dragons like Scarlet and Burn."

"It's all I've ever known! I was raised to be an assassin."

"But you can change." Sunny pointed to the lifeless Drakon, then Peril as she wept over his body with Kestrel. "They both did. They all did. They used to work for Scarlet, then betrayed her."

The assassin seemed to hesitate. Was Sunny really getting through to him?

 _Maybe she's right,_ he thought. _What if I can still change?_ Then he shook his head. _No. It's too late for me. I've been at this for too long._

"What?" the assassin gasped when something jumped on his back. He felt the strap of the bag around his neck snap, and heard it plop into the mud before he found himself pinned to the ground by a RainWing the color of the swamp. Her fangs were ready to drip venom on him, but he felt no fear. However, he was shocked that this RainWing had the strength to keep him pinned down by herself. That or he couldn't move out of fear, knowing what RainWing venom would do to him.

"I should rip off your head for what you did," the RainWing threatened.

"Go for it," he answered without fear. "I have nothing left to lose anyway."

Glory hesitated, but the NightWing didn't seem to notice.

"What is your name?" she demanded, swiping her talons across his snout so it left a crisscrossed wound. "Tell me and I may just not consider melting your face." She let venom drip from her fangs on the ground, where it sizzled, just to further get her point across.

"Deathbringer," he muttered under his breath.

"WHAT?!" Glory roared and forced her claws against his throat, much to his shock. He'd never seen a RainWing be so violent. Deathbringer noticed his blood on the ends of her claws.

"Deathbringer!" he repeated for everyone to hear.

"What kind of name is Deathbringer?" Kestrel laughed.

"If you were raised to be an assassin, your mother would name you that too," Deathbringer growled. He looked back to Glory, and almost asked "How do you put up with them?" when he found himself distracted.

The way the sun shone on Glory's scales, she was stunning. He ended up grinning at her unwillingly.

"Um," Glory said, cocking her head in confusion. "What is wrong with you?"

Deathbringer only chuckled.

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Glory forced her face dangerously close to Deathbringer's, but he seemed to enjoy it. "Are you _hitting_ on me?!" she roared. "What kind of assassin murders someone then starts flirting with their friend?" She clubbed him across the head. "Are you even a real assassin? You seem like a filthy pig to me." _Don't think this means I'm getting off you though,_ she thought. _You could still kill us._

"I know what you're thinking," Deathbringer said. "You think if you get off me, that I'd kill all of you. But no, I won't."

 _Ugh. The scumbag is in love with me. Great._

"In love!" Deathbringer gasped. "What makes you think that?"

"Will you stop reading my thoughts?!" Glory growled. Her scales became fiery red, showing how angry she was. "Have you ever thought of someone's privacy?"

"Get off me and I'll tell you."

"Not a chance. You'd try and cut my throat soon as I did."

"In case you didn't notice, you got rid of my only weapon. It's sinking somewhere in the mud."

"You still have claws and teeth and fire," Glory countered.

"Wouldn't you think that I would've used my fire by now, if I wanted to? I know who all of you are, but none of you were my target. I don't kill who I'm not paid to kill. Not unless they get on my nerves, then they are never seen again," he added sheepishly. "The last dragon that pushed my nerves too far, I buried her alive somewhere in this swamp and left her to slowly suffocate on the mud she swallowed."

"I'd melt your face off if you even tried to kill me," Glory threatened.

"I _don't_ want to kill you," Deathbringer sighed. "You're too beautiful."

"Ugh," Glory groaned. "He's a damn Romeo. That's just what I needed!"

"I vote we bury Romeo here in the swamp!" Kestrel barked. "Let an alligator eat him alive if he doesn't choke to death on mud first."

"He's not worth the effort," Glory sighed. She got off Deathbringer, much to the shock of the rest. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I believe him. Besides, he's just like Peril."

"Excuse _me_?" Peril barked.

"Hear me out. He was raised to be the way he was. Sometimes you should listen to what your heart tells you, not your brain. And right now, my heart is telling me that Deathbringer never wanted to be an assassin. Is that true?"

Deathbringer glanced down at his talons. "Yes. It is," he whispered. "You can't begin to imagine how terrible I feel for killing your friend. You made me realize that I don't want to be this way anymore. There are days I've wanted to cut my own throat after assassinating dragons that couldn't defend themselves. I know this probably means nothing…" He paused. "But I'm sorry," he said to everyone.

"Sunny, don't!" Starflight cried.

But he didn't stop her. Sunny walked out from Clay's wing and right over to Deathbringer. She picked up his right talon in her own, grasping it with both her talons.

"I believe you, Deathbringer," Sunny whispered.

"But if you try _anything_ , I swear the last thing you'll remember is my venom melting your eyes," Glory hissed.

"I do as well," Clay said.

"But I don't think I'm ready to forgive you for what you did," Sunny added.

Deathbringer lowered his head in shame.

"I wouldn't expect you to." Deathbringer paused to dig around in the mud for the sack that contained those metal disks. He found it after a minute of foraging. "I swear, I won't assassinate another innocent dragon," he whispered as he tied the string around the sack so he could wear it around his neck again. "But that won't stop me from setting my eyes on Scarlet, Blister, and Burn." He looked up at the sky. "I'll avenge you, mother," he whispered, trying not to cry in front of all these strangers. "Blister will die for what she had done to you. Then Scarlet will die for what I did here."

Glory stepped up to his side.

"And I'll be with you when the time comes," she said. "But there is something we all must…after we bury Drakon." Deathbringer lowered his head in shame. "We were here to find Clay's—" She motioned to him. "—family before we head to the Rainforest Kingdom. But we don't know where to find the MudWing village. It isn't on any maps we've seen."

"I know where it is," Deathbringer whispered. "Just follow me."

* * *

"There it is," said the NightWing.

"Are you sure about this, Clay?" Glory whispered. "It's risky, being so close to their territory. You know the MudWings are with Scarlet and Burn in the war." _I hate repeating myself,_ she thought. "Sure you're a MudWing, but that's not going to stop them from capturing all of us. We might as well scream 'Hey! We're the dragonets of destiny!' at the sky if we walk into their camp."

"I'm only looking for my family," Clay pressed.

"I'm with Glory," Tsunami whispered. "We shouldn't risk it."

"She's right," Kestrel interrupted. The softness of her voice shocked everyone. "Your mother sold you to the Talons of Peace for three cows, Clay. I don't think she'd be the sort of dragon to suddenly want you back eight years later."

Clay frowned. Everyone sensed how this news about his mother figuratively tore his heart out.

"I'm so sorry, Clay," Sunny said consolingly. She embraced him.

"Let's just go," he sighed. "If my own mother didn't want me as an egg, then there's no way I'll ever find my brothers and sisters. They don't know me. How could we ever find them? There's over a hundred MudWings here. And SkyWings," he added upon seeing orange and red dragons among the brown dragons. "It _is_ too dangerous." Clay hadn't realized they'd traveled right into the middle of the Mud Kingdom.

"So, we're heading to the Rainforest Kingdom then?" Glory asked softly, without taking her eyes off Deathbringer.

"Yes," Clay answered, "we are. It's only a day's flight from here, and there's no way things can be any worse than they are here. The Rainforest Kingdom hasn't been touched by the war. The RainWings aren't even involved with it, and they have no treasures, so not even Blaze would try to conquer it. We'll be safe there for several days to make up on all the sleep we've lost."


	22. Chapter 21: The Queenless Kingdom

**Chapter 21:  
The Queenless Kingdom**

"Have you heard from Her Majesty since she declared she wished to be alone?" Prince Narwhal asked Prince Winter.

"I haven't," Winter answered. "But she wouldn't want us to bother her right now. She's taking what happened to Six-Claws really badly. It's like she blames herself for not doing anything to spare him. But she couldn't have, even if he did deserve it. It'd be against the ancient laws of her kingdom. Besides, who wants to spare an assassin? He'd just kill again when he's let out of our dungeon."

"Regardless. It's not like Her Majesty to isolate herself for so long. I think somebody should check on her. I'll take the blame for this later, if there's nothing wrong."

"I don't know…" Winter said hesitantly. But he quickly realized it was too late to stop Narwhal from opening the door to Queen Glacier's throne room. Winter waited outside as Narwhal slowly went on in the throne room.

"WINTER!" he suddenly screamed. "Go get help right now! Someone tried assassinating Her Majesty! She's still alive but needs help _right now_!"

 _No!_ Winter's mind screamed as he ran down the corridor to the healers' chamber. He barged right on in without knocking and the three healers glared spitefully at the low-ranking prince.

Winter fumbled out the words: "Her Majesty…needs you…assassination attempt…"

* * *

Barely a moment passed before Winter and the healers were in the throne room. They were tending to Glacier's severe wounds as she leaned up against her throne. Her body was covered in gashes inflicted by a blade and a dragon's claws.

"Who did this to you, Your Majesty?" Narwhal demanded. "I'll execute them immediately."

Glacier coughed up blue-red blood.

"I don't know," she said weakly. "It was a SandWing. That's all I know. They tried taking my head off with a sword and stabbing me with their barbed tail. I'm lucky to be alive. That's all I can tell you. My frostbreath has saved me from SandWings twice. The first time was Blister during The Battle of the Ice Kingdom several weeks ago," she added.

"Please, Your Majesty," one of the healers urged. "You mustn't speak right now. Unnecessary movements only make your bleeding worse."

 _That would've been nice to know sooner,_ Glacier thought.

"Winter," Glacier said carefully. "Find your sister and my brother. Take her and question every SandWing you can find about their whereabouts. Throw any whom act suspicious into the dungeon for proper questioning later."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Winter said with a bow and then he was gone again, rushing through the corridors to find his sister and uncle.

Glacier observed the concerned looks on the healers and Narwhal's faces.

"Don't worry about me." She paused." Just send a messenger to tell Blaze what happened here, Narwhal." Another pause. "She needs to know."

* * *

"Has your spy found the dragonets yet, Morrowseer?" Blister hissed, waving her barbless tail around furiously.

"No," the massive NightWing answered. "He hasn't reported back yet. I don't know what is taking him so long."

"Maybe he got lost," a male SandWing muttered. "Good riddance if he did."

Blister answered him by clawing out his throat with the metal talons she wore on her real talons. The SandWing dropped down immediately, but Morrowseer didn't even flinch.

"Impressive," he said.

"Yes, yes," Blister sighed. "I had one of your NightWings make these and additional armor for me. You all seem to know about how fire can be used to create things. And how it can also destroy when it wants to. I intend to defeat Glacier when we attack the Ice Kingdom again. This armor will protect me from her frostbreath." She waved her tail around again, reminding everyone of what happened during the previous battle in the Ice Kingdom. They had been defeated, and the SkyWing assassin she hired failed to kill Blaze; he'd got himself killed instead. Blister considered it a total failure, and she'd even had the general leading her troops that day executed by dismemberment for it.

"But won't Queen Glacier be suspecting another invasion now?" Morrowseer questioned fearlessly. Blister might be larger than him, but she'd lost her deadliest weapon — her barbed tail — so Morrowseer had little reason to fear her anymore. He could dodge her teeth, claws, and fire much easier than her barbed tail, if Blister did attack him. _I wouldn't put it past her,_ he thought. "She's not stupid."

"No, but you are, NightWing," Blister hissed. "Of course I know Glacier will be expecting another attack. That is why I will not take only my SandWing troops this time. When the messenger I sent to the Kingdom of the Sea gives Queen Coral my letter, she will surely supply me with troops for this battle. Coral has hated Glacier ever since some IceWings decided to ruin her hatching day celebration before the war began. She's forbade any IceWings from every flying into her territory ever since. Coral will gladly supply us with enough additional soldiers to _crush_ the IceWings." She paused briefly. "We will not lose this time, Morrowseer. My plan is flawless."

"You said that last time and it cost you your tail," Morrowseer reminded her, "along with a quarter of your army."

"You really enjoy reminding me of my failures, don't you?" Blister hissed.

"I enjoy reminding everyone of their failures," Morrowseer grumbled. "Don't take it personally. Or do, I don't care."

 _I'd stab you in the eye with my stinger right now if I still had it,_ she thought, not caring if Morrowseer could read her thoughts or not. He was probably a liar anyway. She'd had a spy look into his claim in her late mother's library in Burn's Stronghold, and he learned only NightWings born on the night of two or three full moons had any special powers. Morrowseer came across as a boastful dragon to Blister, and since he never bragged about having any powers, he probably didn't have any, even though he liked to make everyone believe he did.

"Get out of my sight," Blister growled. "Meeting is over. Everyone out!"

* * *

"This place is amazing!" Sunny said that night when they arrived in the Rainforest Kingdom.

"If you like all these bright colors everywhere anyway," Kestrel muttered. "I can't stand this. It's like flying into a rainbow."

"You'll get used to it," Deathbringer said. "I've hidden out here from Scarlet when she's in one of her moods. Apparently some RainWing melted her face when she escaped from Scarlet's arena and she's been on a warpath ever since."

"Um. Yeah. About that," Glory said hesitantly.

"Huh?"

"That RainWing that melted Scarlet's face you're talking about? You're looking at her."

Deathbringer's flight faltered a little.

"What was that about?" Tsunami asked from her resting spot on Riptide's back.

"It's just…funny knowing the most hated dragon in the Sky Kingdom," Deathbringer chuckled weakly when he recovered from the shock. "There are wanted posters for you all over the Sky Kingdom, the Mud Kingdom, and the parts of the Sand Kingdom that Burn has control over. Scarlet really wants you dead. She even put a price of 2,000 rubies from the Royal SkyWing Treasure on your head."

"That doesn't surprise me," Glory said, unshaken by this news. "Scarlet always seemed like the kind of queen who'd hold a grudge. But you know what? I'd like to melt the other side of her face so it looks all the same." She paused. "You're the first assassin that might have wanted to kill me, though. Nobody must be interested in bringing Scarlet my head."

"I _didn't_ want to kill you," Deathbringer admitted. "I'd been following all of you ever since you left that scavenger den at the edge of the Queen Coral's territory. My only target was…you know. But believe me, I've seen plenty of other assassins talking about how they'd willingly hunt you down and hack off your head when I stop at the bar in the Ice Kingdom."

"That's nice," Glory muttered. "Now can we just keep up the pace and find the RainWing village?"

"OW!" Sunny suddenly cried. "Something stung me!"

"Something sure did!" Kestrel gasped. She flew around behind Sunny, who yelped when Kestrel reached just above her tail. "This is a dart. Who knows what was shot into you."

Everyone got their answer when Sunny fainted mid flight.

Clay immediately dived down to catch her on his back.

"I always thought it was just rumor that the RainWings used blow darts to put enemies asleep," Deathbringer said.

"Apparently not."

Three more _Pssst_ sounds carried on the wind; before anyone could react, Clay, Kestrel, and Deathbringer were all unconscious on the jungle floor in a pile with Sunny on top of them. The rest besides Glory and Peril quickly followed before they could register what had happened.

"Who is out there?" she demanded. "You are attacking my friends."

"Friends?" a female voice murmured from the trees in confusion.

Suddenly, five RainWings, all of different colors, appeared from the trees. Glory assumed they'd been there all along, camouflaged.

"Yes! These are all my friends, and one of them—" She motioned at Tsunami peacefully resting on top of the others. "—is already badly hurt. She won't be happy to see any of you when she wakes up."

Another RainWing, a male with pink scales but apparently older than the rest, answered: "She'll wake up with our healers, don't worry. You can explain to her what happened there. I'll apologize to your friends on all our behalves."

"What is your name anyway?" Glory asked.

"Jambu."

A moment later, Jambu spit his venom on the nearest leaf.

"What are you doing?" Glory asked, alarmed. _Is he going mad?_

"Venom test," Jambu explained. "When a RainWing meets someone new, we do a venom test to see how closely related we are. Just spit your venom where mine is, and if it cancels out the effects of my venom on the leaf, it means we're related."

Glory did so, and Jambu's venom almost entirely stopped burning through the leaf he'd spit on.

"What does that mean? It's still burning through the leaf a little."

"It means you're my half sister," Jambu told her immediately.

Glory noticed the other four RainWings carefully loading her friends into some kind of net.

"One other question," she said.

"Yes?"

"Who is your queen? Where some of my friends and I came from, there is no information about the Rainforest Kingdom in our scrolls."

"We have a few queens. It changes every month."

"W-what?" Glory choked. "How does that even—"

Jambu cut her off. "Grandeur is the official queen, but she lets anyone old enough who wants the position take it for a month at a time, so she can decide a future queen."

"Why doesn't someone just fight her for the throne, like other tribes do? Or a daughter just succeeds her?"

"We don't fight or do families here," Jambu explained. "That is why we use the venom test to find our relatives before we seek out a partner." He changed the subject back to the queens. "The current queen is Queen Magnificent, but there's also Queen Dazzling, Queen Exquisite, Queen Fruit Bat, Queen Splendor—"

"I…get the point," Glory interrupted. "That's no way to run a kingdom," she muttered under her breath. "What is Grandeur thinking?"

"What was that?" a female RainWing asked.

"Nothing," Glory quickly answered. She thought she'd said that quiet enough nobody would hear her. "So…what does it take for someone to become a queen? In the other kingdoms my friends and I have been too, the only requirement is being a daughter, sister, niece, or granddaughter of the current queen, who fight their queen to the death, and if she kills her, she becomes the new queen. The only other exception is if a queen dies of sickness, murder, or an accident, then her eldest daughter, sister, niece, or granddaughter who wants the position inherits it."

Jambu laughed. "We're not like that here. As I said, we don't exactly do families, or fighting, so it's hard to know who is a daughter, sister, niece, or granddaughter of Queen Grandeur. We've…er, kinda keep all our eggs together in one spot to hatch. That is where the venom test comes into play later so we can find our relatives."

 _That makes no sense,_ Glory thought. _Maybe I should be their Queen!_ She tried not to laugh. _But I'd only be Queen for a month. I should talk to Queen Magnificent about being the permanent Queen. It doesn't sound like they'd care._

* * *

"Your friend has been taken to our healers," Jambu said as he and Glory flew through the hidden RainWing village. "She'll be alright when she wakes up."

"I'm more worried about your healers," Glory laughed. "The last thing she remembers is somebody shooting her with a blow dart. She's gonna be angry when she wakes up."

Jambu shrugged in flight. "They'll probably just shoot her with another blow dart then."

"Jambu!" a voice called. It was a young female RainWing with a mix of bright yellow and pink scales. "Who is that? I have never seen her before or any RainWing with that color of scales before unless — is she worried or displeased or annoyed about something? Or is she just always that way and not any of those things? Please tell me because I would want to know why she's that weird color!"

"Who on Pyrrhia is that?" Glory asked. "I've never met a dragon who talks so much."

"That's Kinkajou," Jambu answered. "You'll get used to her. She really is one of the nicest dragons in the jungle. Nobody here hates her."

"Except for Bromeliad," Kinkajou interjected, "because she thinks I am terrible at venom shooting target practice, and never will amount to anything, and I know that she really hates me but I don't understand why she would call me a terrible student and a noisy nuisance! I'm a loveable, bubbly ball of fluff, so how can Bromeliad hate me so much Jambu?" Kinkajou immediately changed the subject before Glory or Jambu could answer her. "But you didn't answer my question Jambu, so who is that with you and where did she come from, and if she's not worried about something, why is she green?"

"Please, please, Kinkajou," Jambu said. Miraculously, the four-year old dragonet remained silent when she, Glory, and Jambu landed outside the healers' shack where Tsunami had been taken. "This is Glory. She is new to the rainforest. She and some of her friends escaped the SkyWing Kingdom. And she's not worried about anything, she told me green is just the color she prefers."

"Okay, but that makes no sense Jambu, so she has to be worried about something that she isn't telling to you or me or her friends." Kinkajou turned to Glory without shutting her mouth. "But you can tell me, Glory, because I'm the most trustworthy dragon in the forest, and oh I know, maybe you and me could be best friends! I need a new one because Coconut didn't care when I told him about how Bromeliad said I'm the worst student she's ever taught, and I don't ever want to see Coconut again unless he is going to apologize, but he won't be my best friend ever again, so please please please Glory, can you be my new best friend? I won't ever leave your side and I'll be good, I promise!"

"Does she always talk so much?" Glory whispered so only Jambu heard her (or at least that's what she hoped).

"Nobody knows," he whispered back. "Some think she was dropped as an egg when she was taken to the hatchery."

"What are we talking about?" Kinkajou interrupted. "My new best friend shouldn't keep secrets from me because that is wrong, and you know, there are never supposed to be secrets between best friends, so what are you and Jambu talking about? Please tell me"

 _Holy three moons,_ Glory thought. _How am I going to lose her? She believes I'm her new best friend and I never even agreed to that._

"GLORY!" Kinkajou shouted.

"Huh? What?"

"You aren't paying attention to your best friend!" she whined. Her scales became orange, showing she was irritated.

 _Make up an excuse, Glory,_ she scolded herself. _Lie to her if you must._ "Sorry, I was thinking about my friend in there," she said. "Tsunami was hurt in the Kingdom of the Sea by an Animus-touched statue."

"What is animus-touched?" Jambu asked before Kinkajou could, just to spare his half-sister from an otherwise long-winded answer.

"When something is enchanted by magic," Glory answered. "The statue that attacked my friend was enchanted by one of her sisters before she died to kill any heirs to their mother's throne, because she'd thought she would beat her mother in the death battle for the throne and rule as queen forever since her statue would kill any future royal daughters. But Queen Coral defeated Orca instead, and she died. The statue has been destroyed thanks to Tsunami, but she nearly died."

Kinkajou and even the normally cheerfully pink Jambu immediately became white with extreme terror. For once in her life, Kinkajou was speechless as she cowered between Jambu's front legs.

"Th-th-that is horrifying!" Jambu stammered.

"Sorry," Glory whispered. "I'm going to check on Tsunami now. You two can follow if you want."

"Shh," one of the healers said when the trio entered. "She's just waking up."

"Keep your distance," Glory warned. "She won't be happy if she sees any RainWings besides me. They shouldn't have shot her with a blow dart."

"Uh," Tsunami groaned as she sat up. "Who is the moron that shot me in the tail with a dart? I'm going to knock them to the next continent for it." She looked at Glory. "And where are the others?"

"Jambu?" Glory asked her half-brother. "Where did they take the rest of my friends?"

"To the village center," he answered, "so they can meet Queen Magnificent when they wake up."

"How did you get Peril in a net? She'd burn your talons off if you touched her."

"Oh, we didn't touch the younger SkyWing," Jambu said, "or even shoot her with a dart. She warned us about her burning scales when we were loading up the others in the nets."

"Firescales," Glory corrected.

Jambu shrugged. "Close enough."

"Get away venom spitter," Tsunami hissed. "I'm going to see my friends and none of you are stopping me."

"Put the blowpipe down!" Glory commanded. The two healers immediately shrank back as if they'd been yelled at by their Queen. "Hey, maybe I should be the next RainWing Queen after all!" she joked to Jambu. "They listen to me pretty well already."

"I'd love to have an actual Queen!" Kinkajou piped up. "As long as I've been alive, we've had a different Queen every month, and I don't like it. I mean they're all nice and everything, but it's always felt wrong to me for there to be a different Queen every month, and best yet, I'd get to be the best friend of a Queen! Nobody would ever pick on me again!"

 _Oh, what have I done?_ Glory thought. _Now she's going to spread it all over the village that I want to be the next RainWing Queen. But maybe that's a good thing. It might rally the RainWings that would support me._


	23. Chapter 22: The Icy Truth

**Chapter 22:  
The Icy Truth**

"Your Majesty, you must tell us what happened here," Narwhal whispered.

" _Tell you_?" Queen Glacier snarled. She stretched out her wings. "Can't you see? The bastard did all this to me and I never saw their face. They wore some sort of metal mask. What more is there to tell you?"

"Maybe why there are claw marks all over your chest when you said the assassin used a blade," another member of the IceWing council suggested.

Glacier hesitated. "I knocked the blade out of my attacker's grasp with my frostbreath," she whispered curtly. "That's all that matters. My frostbreath has saved me from two SandWing stingers now." Now, her council noticed the severed SandWing barb flopping around on the ice, and they were taken back to the Battle of the Ice Kingdom when they'd seen Blister's severed barb in a similar state after the battle.

"Forgive me Your Majesty, but there's something more you aren't telling us, isn't there?"

"One more word about it and you two can spend the rest of your lives in the Seventh Circle!" Glacier roared. "I've already told you all what happened. Why must you insist on getting more information out of me _when there is nothing more I can tell you_! So what some assassin clawed me on the chest? It's not the first time and certainly it won't be the last as long as I'm your Queen, and as long as the NightWings have their grudge against us.

"Don't forget, the NightWings and SeaWings are on Blister's side in this war. There are more dragons across Pyrrhia that would love to bring my head back to Blister than any of you can even begin to imagine. It was just another assassin. There have been many over the past twenty years of war. Why are all of you so concerned about this one and not all the others?"

Narwhal hesitated. "Er. Your Majesty. This is the first assassin that has attacked you…there." He nervously motioned towards her belly and hind legs with his tail, since she had insisted on showing all her scars from the recent attack to them.

"What just are you saying?!" Glacier snapped. She nearly struck him across the head with her spiked tail. "So what, some assassin wanted to rip my guts out down there? They've tried that before too and I froze their heads solid and watched them shatter before they had the chance."

"I think this assassin wanted to do more than just kill you…" he went on nervously. Glacier narrowed her eyes at him. "Maybe he…"

"Just stop. I know what you are thinking. No scumbag of a SandWing did anything but try to kill me. He didn't violate me unless you count trying to cut my heart out with his weapon. End of story."

"But Your Majesty," said a third. "Narwhal never said anything about the assassin violating you."

 _Damn it,_ Glacier thought. _They're trying to lead me into saying what happened. But I'm smarter than they know. I've been their Queen since before this war began. Some of them weren't even thought about by their parents when the war started. But they still think they can trick me. Well they can't!_

"Why don't you just tell us what happened, Your Majesty?" a fourth council member asked softly. She was standing behind the rest of the eight dragons. "You know we would never judge you for anything."

"Why don't I tell you what happened?" Glacier repeated bitterly. "Are all of you deaf? I have told you several times already. What is there about it you can't understand? HE ONLY TRIED TO KILL ME!" she roared. "That is _all_ that happened. Nothing more. Nothing less. If any of you really insist on being thrown into the Seventh Circle until you die, then by all means, feel free and keep pestering me about this, but do know that I am telling you everything. The assassin did nothing but try to kill me. You're all smart, I thought. Why can't any of you get that through your heads? I hate repeating myself, but you're giving me no other choice here!"

"Your Majesty…"

"If my husband were still alive, he'd have thrown you all out by now! And you two into the dungeon until your next hatching days!" she spat at Narwhal and the female sitting to his left who had pushed Glacier too far. "How dare you speak to your Queen in such a disrespectful way?" She knocked Narwhal across the head with her wing. "I should have the both of you removed from my council! This…this behavior is almost treasonous!"

 _She never overreacts like this,_ Narwhal thought. _She's hiding something. There's no other explanation. I know my sister too well. She'd never act so un-Queenlike unless something is really bothering her. This has to have been more than a regular assassination attempt. She's survived too many of those for them to get to her like this. Her attacker did something more, I just know it. But we're never going to get it out of her at this rate._

"Meeting adjourned," Glacier suddenly declared. "You can all leave, or stay and guard me if you insist. The healers have sealed up my wounds and you all know what happened, so there is nothing more to discuss here."

As she turned and walked back to her throne, which had been cleaned since her attack due to the blood splatters on it, the eight council members reacted with mixes of disbelief and horror when they saw it. Just around the base of Queen Glacier's tail and the backs of her hind legs, there were claw marks from the hind claws of another dragon. Glacier seemed completely oblivious of these wounds, and the council wondered how the healers had missed them, for these scratches showed no signs of having been tended to like her other injuries.

"Y-y-y-your Majesty," Narwhal stammered. "Your tail…"

"What is wrong with you?" Glacier snapped. "You're my brother!"

"Your Majesty, listen," another pressed. "Turn it towards the ice and look."

"It is better if you just find out yourself…"

 _Ugh,_ Glacier thought. _This better be important._

She turned so she saw the reflection of her tail in the ice by her throne. Glacier's scales became pale when she saw what her council members must have seen first.

 _Claw marks?_ she wondered. _But h-how? I fought off my assassin before he could harm me, didn't I? I remember freezing his tail solid with my frostbreath after he sliced me with his blade! I froze his blade and it shattered against my scales before he could slash me again, I thought._

"Your Majesty," said the fifth dragon. "Were you—"

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE!" Glacier roared. She immediately spun around so they couldn't stare at the claw marks at the base of her tail anymore.

Then Glacier remembered. When she thought the assassin had fled after his tail shattered, she'd collapsed from blood loss, and woke up to the assassin there again. The first thing he'd said to her made no sense at the time.

He'd said something along the lines of, 'Ooh! That body of yours. So, delectable. Did you not realize? Of course you didn't, I knocked you out. I would definitely do it again.' in a tired voice. She hadn't understood why he'd sounded so exhausted and had been panting until a few moments ago.

Glacier felt sick to her stomach. The color of her face probably told her council everything.

"You remember, don't you?" one of them asked softly. Glacier couldn't tell who had spoken, she felt so light headed.

She closed her eyes tight, trying to remember back to the moments after she came out of unconsciousness. It wasn't easy at first, but then the brief exchange she'd had with her assassin flashed through her mind.

* * *

" _Ooh!" the SandWing said in a sleepy voice. "That body of yours. So, delectable. Did you not realize? Of course you didn't, I knocked you out. I would definitely do it again."_

 _Glacier felt dizzy as she stood up._ How much blood did I lose? _she wondered. She immediately forgot about her blood loss when she saw the tailless SandWing standing only a few inches away from her._ What in the name of the three moons is he still doing here? And why didn't he kill me? That's what he came here for, isn't it? Isn't it?!

 _Then his words registered in Glacier's mind as she stood up weakly, only to be pushed back down by the SandWing._ NO! _she roared in her mind._ I'll rip him apart slowly if he did what I think! _Instead, Glacier said, "Why don't you tell me if my frostbreath is delectable?!" and shot a burst of frostbreath at him, but he stepped out of the way._

 _There was no fear on the SandWing's face, even though he'd already lost his tail to her frost breath._

" _Soon," he began slowly, "you'll find out exactly what I did to you. The pleasure I felt when I did?" He paused to tauntingly grab Glacier's talons in his own, as if to show affection towards her. "Mhmmm!" he sexually taunted._

" _I'll only find pleasure when I rip out your heart for this!" Glacier roared. "Blister will appreciate the addition to her macabre collection, I hear. I know that's who sent you. There are no other SandWings who have anything against me."_

" _I never had a heart to begin with," the SandWing said in a carefree voice. Glacier hated how proud he sounded and looked. She wanted to rip his smug face off, but she was too sore and tired to use attack him with anything but her frostbreath. "You may have stolen my tail barb, but you haven't stolen my pride, my Queen."_

 _And then the SandWing left Glacier's throne room so she could sit by her bleeding self with a horrified look on her face, contemplating what he'd told her. Had he really done what she thought he did or was he lying to her? Then she realized how much she hurt around her hind legs and the base of her tail, and something told her it wasn't only because of how he'd scratched her with his claws._

* * *

"Your Majesty?" Narwhal questioned, snapping his sister out of her memory. "You look as if you've just had a nightmare."

"I-I-I—" Glacier stammered, but the words died on her tongue. This shocked her council. They'd never seen Glacier lost for words before. She was usually such an eloquent speaker.

 _Three moons,_ the sixth council member thought. _What did she just see?_

"I think…I was…he…the SandWing…no tail barb…" Once again, Glacier's voice trailed off before she could complete her sentence. She began to sob loud enough to wake the dead, and curled up in a ball on the floor of her throne room.

* * *

"What happened to Her Majesty?" one IceWing demanded.

"You brought us all here, why don't the eight of you tell us what happened?"

"SILENCE!" Narwhal roared. "I will tell when once all of you are quiet!"

Silence quickly fell over the audience of IceWings and SandWings who had gathered below the balcony overlooking the chamber outside Queen Glacier's throne room. Blaze was among them, obviously; she'd rushed here from the dungeon where she'd been talking with Quicksand again as soon as one of the guards delivered the news about the attack on Glacier to her.

The eight council members glared down at them all before Narwhal resumed speaking.

"We don't know who the assassin is," he began slowly, "but Her Majesty was attacked in her throne room by a SandWing. I know you're all going to ask how we can find a SandWing among all of you—" He looked at every one of the SandWings as he said this. "—but Her Majesty told us that she froze his tail barb when she woke up and tore it off. Therefore, everyone must keep their eyes peeled for a SandWing without a tail barb or one that is concealing an injury on the end of his tail." Narwhal hesitated, looking at his fellow council members. They all nodded slowly, one at a time. "The assassin didn't kill Her Majesty, but he may have tried to…deflower her after losing the blade he had used. I fear he may do it again, this time to finish what he may have started."

The ground began murmuring. Blaze covered her snout in horror with her talons.

"Did he impregnate her?" a SandWing suddenly questioned, out of concern for Queen Glacier. She felt awkward about asking this, but she didn't have a better way to phrase her question.

"Hey!" Blaze hissed, glaring at her soldier. "Show some respect!"

One of the dragons behind Narwhal raised a talon to silence Blaze, but she grumbled to herself about how disrespectful that question was.

"She's…been tested by our healers, but we have not received any word as of yet," Narwhal answered as though he clearly wanted the answer to be no, but then changed the subject entirely. "So we all agreed that Her Majesty will have guards outside her royal chamber at all times until she recovers from her injuries," Narwhal continued. "An escorted messenger has already been sent to gather Her Majesty's best soldiers from the borders of the kingdom. Only the best should be present to guard her from this assassin in case he returns. And is a fool if he dares.

"Her Majesty informed us of something concerning, however. That the assassin was already in her throne room when he attacked her. That leads us all to believe that he was a spy with Blister who, of course, blended in perfectly among Princess Blaze's soldiers. How he hid so well in the throne room, we do not know, but when Her Majesty is better, we intend to propose this to her. From that day on, she will never be left unguarded in her throne room or her royal chamber. There will always be guards stationed outside her royal chamber at all times, even once she has recovered."

Narwhal's pause told the gathered dragons he was finished. They all began demanding for him to answer their questions, but his expression told his fellow council members he wasn't too thrilled about that idea. He'd already told them more than he wanted to as it was. But it wouldn't hurt to answer a few questions would it? (In spite of one already being rudely asked before he'd given the audience permission to speak.) They all greatly cared about Queen Glacier after all.

"No more questions," Narwhal declared, after giving it some more thought. "The opportunity was lost when she—" He motioned with his right talon at the soldier who'd asked if Queen Glacier had been impregnated. "—rudely interrupted me. You are all dismissed. Except for Princess Blaze," he suddenly added. "I wish to speak with you in private."

* * *

 _That night…_

Queen Glacier groaned as she tried sleeping on the bed in her royal chamber. The tribal healers had cleared her to return to her royal chambers after covering her injuries up with a few large gauze.

She had no idea that her two best soldiers had been stationed outside her royal chamber.

Glacier's chest rose and fell peacefully once she finally dozed off into an anything but peaceful sleep. Every time she dozed off, she woke up screaming due to nightmares about her attacker.

Both guards, whenever they heard her scream, quickly came inside to check on her only to be ushered away after she calmed down. She tried to sleep once again but the result was the same, until she heard movement from outside her royal chamber…

"Oh," Glacier groaned, then added so her guards could hear, "Why must they always check on me every time I scream? They know it's only nightmares by now."

 _Bang._

 _What was that?_ Glacier wondered.

"You aren't supposed to be here!"

"Go back now! Only members of the royal family and her guards are permitted here."

The next thing Glacier heard was a pair of screams followed by the sound of throats being slashed, one body collapsing with a thud, and then another following.

Glacier began to hide under her covers, even though she knew it was a horrible way to hide from an intruder, as the door cracked open. Her eyes became wide when she saw a sandy-hued dragon slip through the doorway covered in the blue-red blood of IceWings. He held a sword just like the one used by Glacier's attacker in her throne room.

"I told you I'd find you again," the SandWing said. "You suspected correctly that Blister sent me, so you should have suspected even your best IceWing soldiers wouldn't be a match for me. I was trained by the best. So now I'm here to make sure you're…"

He stopped to dodge an explosion of frost breath escaping Glacier's jaws.

"You're going to have to try better than that this time," he spat. "You're not going to get me with that trick again, _Your Majesty_ ," he added condescendingly. "I could have killed you last time, but when I saw you lying there unconscious, I'd thought of a much better way to make you suffer. Queen Blister always says psychological warfare is the best way to make a Queen crack like an egg."

"Blister is no Queen yet!" Glacier hissed.

"That is true, and so is this. I'm going to be an unofficial King of the IceWings in a few months when you have my children."

Glacier was horrified. Was she really pregnant with this bastard's children?

She tried to hide her shock from him. He didn't need to see that his plan was working. She needed to make him wonder if he was successful in 'making her crack like an egg', as he'd put it.

"I'll rip you to shreds before they're born," she snarled, standing up from her bed in spite of her injuries. "They won't know their father was a monster."

She charged. The clash of metal upon metal was the only sound that echoed amidst the walls of her chamber, after Glacier revealed a hidden blade that struck against her attacker's. They both were on opposite sides to each other but not even a scream came from the barbless SandWing. His head fell forwards to the frozen floor, followed by the crash of his weapon and the thud of his decapitated body.

"Your Majesty!" a voice called from outside her royal chamber. Glacier realized it was Narwhal and Prince Winter, her nephew and Narwhal's son, when two dragons rushed into the royal chamber.

Narwhal and Winter screeched to a halt when they saw the decapitated SandWing behind Queen Glacier.

"Is that…?" Winter asked.

"Yes," Glacier answered. "He won't hurt another female dragon again." She paused. "But…I think I am going to be the mother of his dragonets." Winter nearly fainted upon hearing these words; his father had to balance him up straight. "We'll…know when the results of the healers' test comes back," she added hesitantly.

"You can always get rid of them, Your Majesty," Narwhal said softly.

"No," Glacier answered him sternly. "I don't want to take away these dragonets' lives before they are even eggs. Just because their father was a monster doesn't mean they don't have a right to live. If I am going to have his eggs, they won't ever know who their father was or that he was evil. I'll raise them to be the best dragonets they can be. They'll be the best dragons in the First Circle since you, Narwhal."

"But they won't be pure IceWings," Winter whispered. "Their father will be a SandWing. How can they belong in the First Circle?"

"The same way you'll belong in the Seventh Circle if you ask another stupid question, nephew," Glacier hissed.

Winter realized he hadn't said that as quietly has he'd initially thought and wanted to smack himself for it.

Narwhal cuffed Winter across the back of his head and glared at him. Winter knew what his father's glare said and he bowed his head at his aunt apologetically, then he backed away from his superiors so they could speak in private. Winter would wait for them outside the royal chamber.

"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" Narwhal asked softly.

Glacier took a brief glance at the dead Sandwing, then turned her head back to her brother.

"I am now," she said.

"What do you wish for me to do with him?"

"I don't care. Just get rid of his body so I never see him again. I'd like to start forgetting any of this happened."

"They're going to expect you to speak about this," Narwhal sighed. "Your subjects and Blaze's army."

"I know. And I will. But they can wait to hear from me. I won't stop being their Queen temporarily just because of a few scratches and a traumatic experience, but they don't need to hear from me that my attacker is dead yet. I need to recover now that I can sleep without fear of waking up to my throat being cut."

"Did you wish for me to station more guards outside your door?"

Glacier hesitated for a moment. She hadn't even given this another thought, since her attacker was dead. What if she had said no and Blister had more spies among Blaze's soldiers that could assassinate her?

"Yes," she answered. "At least three." She paused. "And I know that it will require you to stay up late, but could you plan a burial for my two soldiers he killed?" She wiped away a tear before Narwhal could see it. "They were the best soldiers in my army. They deserve to be honored." _It's my fault they died. I should have warned them to expect the attacker to pay a visit. How will I explain to their families that I got them killed by not giving them enough information about who they were to guard me from?_


	24. Chapter 23: A NightWing Advances

**Chapter 23:  
A NightWing Advances**

In the middle of a conversation with her friends, Glory nearly jumped out of her scales when she felt a wing smack against the base of her tail. She furiously whirled around to catch a certain NightWing whistling innocently and trying not to meet her spiteful glare, polishing one of his metal disks with a cloth. Glory's fangs already dripped with venom.

"Yes?" Deathbringer asked nonchalantly.

"NightWing pig!" Glory barked before whipping her tail between his hind legs _hard_. Of course, this made Starflight feel uncomfortable, being a NightWing as well.

"Gah!" Deathbringer's voice seemed high pitched suddenly, like he'd just squealed. "Oh, why did...you whip me...there?" He groaned loudly and backed away in pain.

"Should I fetch the RainWing healers again?" Tsunami asked, stifling a laugh.

"That certainly will...leave a mark," Deathbringer complied, struggling to move his back legs to walk without pain.

"Next time it will be my venom!" Glory hissed. Sure enough, her fangs were still dripping with the black toxin. "I wonder how you'll react then! My aim is brilliant! Or maybe I could bite you there!"

Peril, Tsunami, Sunny, Kestrel, and Kinkajou all blinked with shock.

"Please. Don't do that." Deathbringer backed away further.

"Yes! Please don't!" Clay and Starflight urged together. Jambu was suddenly nowhere to be seen. "We like our dreams to be nightmare-free!"

"Enough children please!" Kestrel said.

"Then tell Deathbringer here to keep his wings to himself!" Glory snapped. She whipped her tail at him again and he nearly screamed this time. "I don't appreciate a stranger and a murderer getting touchy-feely with me. Not that I appreciate it when _anyone_ does anyway!"

"Do you want me to burn him _now_?" Peril asked.

"Oh, please do!" Glory urged. "It'd be the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Deathbringer looked hurt by this remark, more so than Glory's tail had hurt.

Before he could react, Kinkajou was by his side. He jumped back an inch or two in surprise.

"Don't worry," Kinkajou said. "You could always have me! Don't believe what anyone tells you, I'm the best RainWing you'd ever meet. Besides Glory. Nobody's better than her."

 _What a talon-licker,_ Glory thought.

"I could take you and show you all my favorite places and food in the rainforest," Kinkajou went on.

Deathbringer's eyes became wide. _That's not any better!_ he thought, imagining how horrific it would be to have that chatterbox following him around constantly and never shutting up. _What's worse? Glory melting my pride with her venom or Kinkajou talking me to death on some tour of this jungle?_

"Oh!" Kinkajou suddenly exclaimed. "I could probably bring my friend Moonwatcher too! I know she doesn't get out much, and she'd like to have a NightWing friend! I could take both of you on a tour of the rainforest! Don't you think it'd be fun?"

"Um…" Deathbringer hesitated. "Sure?" _I'm going to regret saying that, aren't I?_ he thought, a nervous expression coming across his face.

"Yes, yes," Glory interrupted, still sounding bitter. "Keep him distracted from smacking my rear." She glared at Deathbringer again. "I'd pay you with gold to do that if I had any, Kinkajou."

"I accept fruit," the little RainWing said simply. She glanced angrily up at the highest tree close to the pavilion, then looked miserably when she realized she'd never be able to fly that high at her age. "We don't have any treasure here anyway. The Queens wouldn't care. Well, I have never seen any of our Queens talk about treasure. It's like none of them even know it exists. Except maybe Queen Grandeur. I'd like to see treasure one day, but I'm not supposed to leave the rainforest."

"Does she always talk so much?" Deathbringer whispered to the dragon closest to him without realizing it was Glory until she smacked him across the head with her tail.

"Yes. She does. Which is why I think you'd get along with her perfectly!" _Ugh! Get out of my scales already. You've known me two days. Quit acting like I want to love you already. Don't forget, you introduced yourself by killing one of my friends. You'll have to try damn hard to impress me now. Smacking my tail's not a good start either._

"Ahh!" was Deathbringer's response to Kinkajou climbing up his back. She began examining the pouch around his neck curiously.

"What's in here?" she asked. "It clatters like treasure. Is it treasure? Please tell me it is. I want to see treasure for once."

"No, it's not," Deathbringer answered slowly. "It's my weapons."

"Oooh!" Then Kinkajou gave him a confused glance. "What's a weapon?"

"They don't fight here, stupid," Glory muttered, but he didn't hear her.

"RainWings don't have weapons," Starflight explained. "They haven't even fought for centuries. The RainWings aren't involved in the War of SandWing Succession. Personally, I don't think they even know there's a war being fought in every other kingdom."

"What's war?" Kinkajou piped up. "Is it fun?"

 _Ugh. Three moons,_ Tsunami thought. _She doesn't even realize how stupid she sounds right now, does she?_

Starflight sighed. "See? Kinkajou doesn't even know what it is."

"War is anything _but_ fun," Deathbringer said harshly. He glanced over at Kinkajou. "There have been dragons dying outside your little utopia every day for the past twenty years just because those stupid SandWing sisters can't agree on who should take their mother's throne or how to divide the power they could all inherit if they'd just stop fighting and rule the Kingdom of Sand together. My parents are among them."

"Oh." Kinkajou's scales became white as snow and her face became just as terrified, as she tried hiding between Glory's front legs, shaking like a leaf.

"Hey!" Tsunami snapped. "Don't frighten the little one."

"Somebody has to tell these RainWings what the world is really like," Deathbringer said defensively, "or else they're all going to be stuck in their own pathetic bubble forever like Blaze is. She's afraid to get blood on her talons and makes the IceWing Queen fight her battles for her."

"You really haven't kept up on news of the war have you?" Kestrel interrupted. "Blaze killed an assassin that tried killing her and her niece. Her bubble popped weeks ago. Where have you been all that time? Living under a rock? For someone that says he gets around a lot, you seem pretty ignorant of recent events."

"One time doesn't make Blaze a fighter. And for the record, I know about _everything_ that has happened in the Ice Kingdom lately. Blaze killing an assassin during a battle between her and Blister's forces, Onyx's assassination, Quicksand's imprisonment, Six-Claws' execution, the assassination attempt on Queen Glacier. Let's not forget about Glacier chopping off her attacker's head, just so you don't have any reason to doubt me, SkyWing. And there's word going around Pyrrhia that her attacker may have done worse things to Glacier than try to kill her."

"Talk to her that way again and you'll be having a word with my talons!" Peril snapped, stepping between Deathbringer and Kestrel. "So back off!"

Peril took a swipe at Deathbringer, who immediately fell flat on his back. He knew what being touched by a firescale-afflicted dragon could do to anything they touched.

"Fine! Fine! I'll go away if that's what you want."

Deathbringer flapped his wings and took off to the south.

Kinkajou ran after him. "Wait! Wait! You never said if you wanted me to take you and Moonwatcher on a—"

"Stay," Glory ordered, blocking Kinkajou's path with her arm. Kinkajou desperately watched Deathbringer fly away. "Let the cry baby go. He'll come crawling back in a few days. Something tells me Deathbringer won't be able to handle being away from me for long."

* * *

"Try and be a little more quiet you lummox," the female SandWing rasped. She waved her barbless tail around, wishing she hadn't lost it just so she could scratch this annoying NightWing with it.

He shot her a hateful glare. "NightWings aren't exactly built for stealth in a rainforest," he growled. "And I don't see you handling this much better than I am."

"At least I'm not making enough noise to wake the entire rainforest, Morrowseer."

"Oh, get off it. It won't matter anyway when you and I are ripping the dragonets' throats out. The whole rainforest will wake up then."

"But I don't want them knowing we're here _now_!" Blister snapped. "Are all NightWings stupid or just you?"

Morrowseer ignored her. "And then we'll find my daughter. I know Secretkeeper intended to hide her out here away from the island in case the volcano ever erupted, and probably so our daughter never knew me either."

"I can't say I can blame your wife for that," Blister said. "If you were my husband, I wouldn't want our daughter to know you either. You're not the kind of dragon that should be around children."

"What would you know about that?" Morrowseer spat. "You've never even looked for a husband or children. And that's coming from _you_ , the only dragon I know that likes to collect severed heads of her victims."

"What's the point of getting attached to someone then watching them die in this war? I can just seek out a male once I'm the Queen and the fighting is over."

If _you become the Queen,_ Morrowseer thought. _It'd be unfortunate if you were met with a little "accident" here, and it was left to Burn and Blaze to fight this war._ Instead, he said, "If I find out Secretkeeper did hide my daughter out here, I'll see about having her executed when I take them back to the island. I'm sure Queen Battlewinner would support having a runaway dipped into lava."

"You're definitely not a deserving father," Blister remarked, legitimately stunned. "I know I'm evil, I would never deny that, but even I wouldn't stoop as low as uxoricide if I was male and had a wife."

"I highly doubt that," Morrowseer muttered. "You'd probably kill your husband, if you had one, in return for something to add to your macabre collection."

"I would not!" Blister cried out, seeming offended. "But enough with this stupidity. I love discussing murder, but this is not the time. Do you even know where the dragonets are in this moonforesaken forest?"

"No, but how hard can a MudWing, two SkyWings, a RainWing, a NightWing, two SeaWings, and a deformed SandWing traveling together be to spot in a rainforest?"

Blister glared at him. "For someone like you? _Very_!"

Morrowseer wanted to rip Blister's face off more and more every time she opened her mouth, but he knew he'd need her until they had killed everyone on their current hit list. He couldn't do it himself in this rainforest, as much as he hated to admit it. He needed a more graceful flier, and Blister had been the only volunteer. Of course, their pool of potential volunteers had been low, just among the twenty SandWings loyal to Blister that hadn't died in the Battle of the ice Kingdom and a few NightWings Morrowseer had brought with him from the island; Blister couldn't just send a letter to Queen Coral asking for SeaWing reinforcements to help kill her daughter and her friends so the prophecy can be fulfilled on her own terms. She desperately needed Queen Coral's support in this war (since Burn had the SkyWings and MudWings' support and Blaze had the IceWings' support, as well as the SandWing majority, while Blister only had the NightWings and a handful of SandWings' support), if she were to become the next SandWing Queen. The NightWings weren't enough to help Blister achieve that goal.

Queen Coral's support wouldn't last if she found out Blister wanted to kill Tsunami and her friends, so she needed to make this seem like a rogue NightWing assassin murdered them all. Coral believed Blister would never set foot in a place like the Rainforest Kingdom, so she'd never be a suspect. It was the perfect plan to guarantee she becomes the SandWing Queen. Blister knew Clay and his friends would never pick her as the next SandWing Queen; they probably believed she'd kill them and everyone they care about if she had that much power in her talons. And she would, even Queen Coral and as many of her relatives as possible if she ever caught any of them at the Summer Palace. She wouldn't need them anymore once she became Queen, so Blister figured she might as well kill as many royal SeaWings as she could.

"There," Morrowseer suddenly whispered harshly, snapping Blister out of her sadistic thoughts of what she'll do in the future. "They're there in the trees."

"What in the hell are they doing in the sort of trees that grow here?" Blister exploded. "They're not RainWings."

"No, but there's two RainWings now," Morrowseer observed. "The one that the Talons of Peace replaced the broken SkyWing egg with and a younger one."

"Let's rip her apart too," Blister suggested. "Just for good measure. Nobody's going to miss a no-name RainWing anyway."

"I was just about to suggest destroying all the RainWings while we're here. It's not like they can fight back anyway. RainWings are pathetic fighters. I don't even think they know how deadly their venom is."

"Glory does," Blister reminded. "You know what she did to Scarlet. Scarlet can't go anywhere now without wearing a metal mask over her face. Even Burn's soldiers talk about Scarlet behind her back if they see her melted face."

"Who do we kill first?"

"The SkyWing with firescales. She's the most dangerous one."

"And, if you don't mind me asking, _how_ do you intend to do that?" Morrowseer asked, narrowing his eyes. "Nothing can touch a dragon with firescales. It either melts or becomes ash."

"If you shut up, you'll see how I intend to kill the firecsaled dragon. She'll be dead before her firescales can protect her."

Blister unsheathed a large, crescent moon-shaped blade. Morrowseer wondered how he hadn't noticed it on Blister's hip sooner.

"All I need to do is throw this and it will circle around to lop her head clean off," she explained. "Coral doesn't know it, but I 'persuaded' one of her animus dragons to enchant this blade so it can kill Peril with ease the last time I was at the Summer Palace. He's also never going to tell Coral about our deal either. I made sure of that before I left."

 _I don't even want to know how you persuaded whoever it was to do that for you,_ Morrowseer thought. _You're not one to give up your treasure as payment._

"You'll never see this coming, you monster," Blister muttered, readying the animus-touched weapon. And then she let it go. It soared through the rainforest, making a loud whirring sound. Blister's heart began to race as the blade made its way closer to the unsuspecting group of dragons. _Yes! Yes! Death to Queen Scarlet's notorious death monster!_

Chaos erupted on the treetop pavilion when a dragon's head detached from its neck.

 _NO!_ Blister screamed in her mind as she and Morrowseer ducked down in the foliage to avoid being spotted. They couldn't tell through the leaves who it was crying over the decapitated dragon's body, but it definitely wasn't Peril that was decapitated. It had just occurred to them that Peril wouldn't be on the pavilion, since her touch would set the entire wooden structure ablaze.

"IT CAME FROM THAT WAY!" Blister heard the unmistakable voice of Tsunami roar.

Next was Glory. "I'll kill him! DEATHBRINGER! You'll pay dearly for this!"

 _Perfect,_ Blister thought. _They won't suspect either of us. And they're distracted. Morrowseer and I can swoop in and kill the rest of them before they expect it._

"Somebody get Peril!" Clay shouted.

"Why did she go out of sight anyway?!" Sunny cried. "We need to stay where we can see each other at all times, and now—" Her words trailed off and Blister couldn't understand the rest. It sounded as if she was screaming now.

 _If it wasn't Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, or Peril, then who?_ Blister wondered. The anticipation of finding out was killing her. She still couldn't tell who the other panicked dragons or who the dead one was.

"SHOW YOUR FACE!" Tsunami roared again. "So I can slowly rip it off!"

"Get off the pavilion!" Blister heard a voice she didn't recognize order. It was the male SeaWing, she realized a moment later. "It's going to fall! The blade cut through the tree!"

"STARFLIGHT!" Sunny screamed.

"Move you bookworm!" Tsunami roared. "Unless you want to be crushed by this tree!"

Blister saw the SeaWing tackle Starflight right off the pavilion, followed by several other screaming dragons and a headless body flopping uselessly to the ground. It landed on top of Sunny, who lost what little sanity she had left and began flailing around like a dragon possessed.

"Oh please! GET HER OFF ME!" the little SandWing screamed.

"What happened?!" a new voice roared. Blister realized it was her intended target judging by the scorched trail of grass left in her wake as she ran back to the now collapsed pavilion. "Is everyone alright?!"

"No!" Sunny cried as Starflight held her head against his chest.

Riptide approached Peril carefully. "Someone from that way…t-threw an assassin's blade this way…and…"

"Who died?!" Peril screamed again.

"You'll burn the entire world if we tell you…" Clay whispered.

"SPIT IT OUT! I need to know what happened!"

Then she found out for herself before anyone could be brave enough to tell her. Peril realized Kestrel wasn't standing or sitting with the others.

"Where is my mother?!" Peril demanded. The firescaled SkyWing was met by silent stares. Clearly nobody wanted to answer her. "Somebody tell me or I'm—"

"What was that?" Tsunami snarled.

"Deathbringer! If this was you, I'll make you suffer slowly."

"That's n-not Deathbringer!" Starflight whimpered, seeing a large black dragon ducking back into the jungle.

"Wait here," Peril snarled. "When I get back, I expect to find out where my mother is."

As Peril darted off, being careful not to brush her scales against any foliage since that would ignite the entire rainforest, Clay looked at his friends as if to say 'How will we break this to her?' before covering his eyes. He was thankful Peril hadn't noticed the decapitated body, as strange as it was that she didn't.

* * *

"Come on, where are you two?" Peril growled as she rushed through a clear path in the jungle, trying to find the large NightWing they'd all seen tackled down into the foliage by a heavily scarred SandWing missing its tail barb. "I'll melt both of you if I find out you killed my mother."

"Hide!" Peril heard a faint voice cry. "Scarlet's killing machine is coming!"

"You won't get away! I'll hunt you both down all night if I must!"

Peril screeched to a stop in the middle of a clearing, staring down at talon prints in the ground that went in every direction, as if the culprits were trying to confuse Peril. But she was smarter than that. She saw talon marks that disappeared into the foliage to the left.

 _Glory's going to hate me for this,_ Peril thought, and then she lept right into the densest part of the jungle. Flames immediately roared up around her as her scales brushed against all sorts of plants, but Peril wasn't going to stop now that she had the two mysterious dragons in her sights. They didn't know it, but Peril had seen then jump down over a cliff into a lake, based on the splashing sound she'd heard immediately after.

* * *

"She won't find us now!" Blister whispered triumphantly, as she and Morrowseer floated in the lake. The water was up to the pair of massive dragons' chests.

"You're insane," Morrowseer grumbled. "This is a horrible place to hide. We can't even go all the way under this lake's surface. What were you thinking?"

"She was thinking about _me_ and that I'd turn both of you into ash!" a voice bellowed from the cliff above.

Immediately, a fire red SkyWing jumped down and landed on top of Morrowseer as Blister frantically rushed out of the pond, and vanished into the jungle. She didn't even hear Morrowseer's agonizing screams; Blister only wanted to escape with her own life before Peril attacked her too.

The massive NightWing's head fell apart in Peril's talons before Blister was even out of her line of sight. Peril let Morrowseer's body fall back into the lake, his front side still rapidly disintegrating due to her deadly touch.

"I'll get you too, Blister," Peril snarled. "You may get away now, but you'll end up just like him."

She swiped her sharp claws through Morrowseer's chest. The fragments of flesh hanging from them immediately became ash and his blood evaporated, leaving brown stains on her claws.

Peril felt droplets of water land on her head suddenly and looked up with surprise.

 _A miracle,_ she thought. _Now my recklessness won't burn down the entire rainforest. Still, I need to be smarter in the future._

Then the SkyWing's heart sank when she remembered the dragon these two had killed, and she pulled herself up the ledge, which nearly crumbled due to Peril's firescales, and she ran back to where she'd left her friends.

* * *

"What is wrong with you?" Glory demanded when Peril returned. "You could have burned this entire jungle down!"

"But I didn't, thanks to the rain," Peril said. Her heart was still racing. _So this is what it feels like to kill someone for the right reasons for once._ "And I think I killed the NightWing you told me about. Morrowseer?"

"It wasn't Deathbringer that attacked us?" Glory gasped.

"Now tell me," Peril demanded, " _who died_?"

Clay stepped forward. Starflight was still busy comforting Sunny.

"Don't hate me…" he whispered.

"Please, Clay. Just tell me."

"Peril, I'm sorry. I-It…"

"No!" she gasped.

"…it was Kestrel," Clay finished hesitantly. He immediately covered his head as if he expected Peril to explode, literally, and lash out at whatever happened to be closest to her.

But none of that happened.

Clay uncovered one eye to see Peril only sitting in the same spot as before, stone faced and silent. He realized Peril had seen Kestrel's headless body underneath the collapsed pavilion, but he instantly looked to the ground amidst his sadness, laying down only to bury his face under his forearms.

Kinkajou shuddered and sobbed against Glory's thigh, with Glory holding a wing around her. Jambu was to their left. Sunny hadn't moved from Starflight's side, still burying her face in his chest and Starflight could not give in to the depression that surrounded him, and he hugged her as the tears fell from his eyes.

Despite Tsunami's hatred for her, she understood that if Kestrel hadn't have pushed Glory away they would have lost her within moments, which was a major reason why Kinkajou was so shaken up. Tsunami soon broke down when Riptide hugged her, and they all stayed like this for another five minutes grieving for Kestrel's death.

Glory looked up with bloodshot eyes when she heard footsteps approaching slowly.

 _Deathbringer,_ she thought. _You have a habit of showing up at bad times. We could've used your 'superior hearing' a little bit ago. Maybe Kestrel would still be alive._ She stopped herself there. _Why am I blaming Deathbringer for this? He couldn't have known Morrowseer would try to kill us after he left._

"W-What happened here? I came back as soon as I heard the crash."

"Blister," Glory snarled, for the rest of her friends were too traumatized to speak, "and Morrowseer. They came here to kill one of us — I couldn't tell you who, but that doesn't matter — and Kestrel shoved me out of the way to take the blow from their weapon."

Deathbringer groaned. "I knew I shouldn't have left all of you alone. Every time I do that, somebody dies. It's how I lost my mother. I turned my back on her for a moment, then she was struck by lightning, and before I could get to her, she was being killed by SandWing soldiers. She probably named me Deathbringer for more reasons than just being born into a family of assassins…" He stopped for a moment. "Wherever I go, death always follows even when I'm not out to assassinate somebody. Maybe I should just kill myse—"

"No!" Glory cried when he positioned his claws dangerously against his neck.

"Oh, why not?" Deathbringer made a miserably sound and let his wings droop. "I only bring suffering wherever I go and I have no family left that cares about me. What reason does someone like me have to go on living? The world would be better off with one less dragon like me lurking around every corner."

Glory felt so conflicted. She hated Deathbringer's guts for killing Drakon, but now, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He just needed to find a better purpose to his life. But…

 _I think I'm feeling something more than pity for Deathbringer,_ she thought. _I'll do it if it raises his spirits…_

Much to everyone's shock, especially Deathbringer's, Glory suddenly embraced Deathbringer, wrapping her wings tightly around his broad shoulders in a way that said 'I'm _not_ letting go of you'. She rested her head on his shoulder and began whispering something in a calming tone that nobody could decipher.

"Y-you do care about me?" Deathbringer whispered. _What is this feeling in my heart?_ he wondered. _I've never felt this way before._ It made no sense to Deathbringer; it felt like butterflies were fluttering around in his black heart. _Is this what it feels like to be in love? But I was just being stupid when I flirted with Glory before!_

Then Deathbringer realized what it was that Glory had whispered moments ago: "You have me. I'm your reason to live, Deathbringer."

"Y-you think you're my reason to live?"

Glory only nodded up at him, not moving her head from resting on his shoulder. Deathbringer thought she batted her eyes at him, but he wasn't too sure, considering they'd only known each other a short time and he didn't introduce himself on good terms. Regardless, this all made him smile for the first time since before his mother died.

Sunny became worried when she saw Tsunami chewing on her bottom lip.

 _Don't you dare say something to ruin this moment,_ Sunny thought. She wiped away tears brought on by thinking about both Kestrel's sacrifice, and now this touching moment.

But Tsunami thankfully never did. For once, she kept her mouth shut. Maybe it had something to do with the sudden embrace from Riptide, but whatever made Tsunami stay quiet was honestly fine with Sunny.

Everyone just realized how Clay had been embracing Peril, but he had to let go since the touch of her firescales had begun to be too much for even his fire resistant scales. His scales almost immediately healed once he let go of Peril, though.

"Glory?" he asked. "Where are we going to sleep now? The RainWings said this was the only available pavilion for visitors."

"I can work something out," Kinkajou said. "Give me a few minutes." _Queen Magnificent's gonna hate me for waking her this late at night, but I have to help them. Friends of Glory's are friends of mine._

"Shall we talk about this in private, Deathbringer?" Glory asked him in a whisper, before they both started flapping their wings.

"W-wait?" Starflight stammered. He pulled Sunny close to him so suddenly that it made her squeal with shock. "Where are they g-going?"

"Glory!" Riptide called, but her and Deathbringer didn't pay attention. "Wait!"

"We'll be back in a few moments!" Deathbringer shouted down to the others.

"I think we should follow them," Tsunami said. "Deathbringer might know where there's another available pavilion. He knows this place as well as Kinkajou does, doesn't he?"

"We should wait for Kinkajou to come back," Sunny disagreed quietly as she squirmed out of Starflight's embrace. "She'd never find us if we went chasing Glory and Deathbringer all over the rainforest when they wouldn't want us to follow them. So please, let's all just sit down and try to sleep until Glory, Deathbringer, and Kinkajou return."

* * *

 **Author's note:** I hate what happened to Kestrel in this chapter, but I won't lie, I really enjoyed writing Peril killing Morrowseer. I hated him from the start in the canon series, and what he did in _The Dark Secret_ made me hate him even more. Moonwatcher's lucky she never knew him.


	25. Chapter 24: Glory's Proposal

**Author's note:** People probably know where this is doing, so I'm going to point this out. This won't be anything like how the Royal RainWing Challenge went in _The Hidden Kingdom_. mikey1393drago and I thought up our own ideas for what the different challenges could be.

And yeah, this'll be the last chapter I post for right now. I'm just writing these faster than I post them, and I end up forgetting to do that until I have several to post at once (if anyone is wondering why I spam post these chapters, in case I haven't explained it before).

* * *

 **Chapter 24:  
Glory's Proposal**

"This wouldn't have happened if I were the queen of the RainWings!" Glory seethed to her friends. "They have no guards! Blister and Morrowseer snuck in here, and there was _nobody_ to stop them! Kestrel's dead because of it."

Starflight cocked his head. "Just what are you saying?"

"That I should be the queen of the RainWings! What else?"

"But…they change Queens every month," Peril said. "You remember what Jambu told you."

"Doesn't matter," Glory hissed. "I'll do away with that when I'm their Queen. If any of these false Queens doesn't like it, then that's too bad. They can file a complaint with me and I'll consider reading it after I deal with more urgent matters than an unhappy false Queen or two. Turning these RainWings into fighters to help us end this war will be more important than anything."

Deathbringer coughed. "RainWings? _Fighters_? This is a joke, right?"

"Hmm." Glory cleared her throat and began tapping her talons on the floor of the pavilion. "Are you forgetting _I'm_ a RainWing or did you just get hit in the head too hard on the way here again?"

Deathbringer shut up immediately. He knew even an apology would only have Glory more angry with him. Besides, he was horrible at apologizing. Quickstrike never taught him how, claiming "You're going to be the best assassin Pyrrhia ever knows one day, so you can't be sorry about anything". Those words had stuck with him all these years, because it was the _only_ thing Quickstrike had taught him before she died. After that, he'd fallen into the clutches of Scarlet, and he now realized how serving her had to be the biggest mistake of his life.

"But Glory!" Sunny chirped. "How are we going to convince Queen Magnificent that you'd make a good Queen? Next to Kinkajou and all the dragonets playing in that 'safe zone', you're probably the youngest RainWing here."

"And what does being older have to do with being a good Queen?" Glory snapped. "Everything I've been through with you guys, I have as much experience as someone like Blister or Scarlet! And anyone knows I'd make a better Queen than either of them. I won't go around chopping off the heads of anyone that gets on my nerves, for starters." She lowered her voice. "But I'll make an exception for Scarlet, Burn, and Blister."

* * *

"You need to let me in to see Queen Magnificent!" Kinkajou pleaded to a male RainWing standing guard outside the queen's pavilion (Kinkajou used the term "guard" lightly, since he seemed as though he were about to fall asleep right there).

"She is with someone else right now, dealing with an important matter."

" _My_ matter is more important!"

And then Kinkajou nearly bowled the guard over, in spite of being half his size.

"Stop!" the guard cried. "You can't see her yet! You have to wait your turn!""

Queen Magnificent and the female RainWing stopped conversing to give Kinkajou confused looks.

"What is the meaning of this?" Queen Magnificent demanded, but she didn't sound very serious to Kinkajou. _Another reason Glory deserves to be our Queen,_ she thought. _We need a Queen that visitors from other kingdoms can respect._

"My friends, they need a new hut to stay in," Kinkajou began, "because we were attacked by a SandWing and a NightWing, and one of them was killed, and the tree we were in was destroyed, and now they have nowhere to live!"

"Oh my," Queen Magnificent gasped. "Now please go and wait your turn outside my pavilion until I'm finished with her. I'll be with you in a few moments."

Kinkajou's scales immediately became a mixture of red, the RainWing colors of anger and being upset. If she had fire in her like other dragons did, her nostrils would be puffing out smoke.

"What in three moons is wrong with you?" the little RainWing snarled. "Did you not even hear a word I said?" She stamped her foot so hard against the wooden floor of the pavilion it cracked a tiny bit. "Glory would be a better Queen than you any day, Magnificent! You don't deserve to be Queen! You're lazy and don't seem to care that one of Glory's friends is _dead_!"

"Next!" Magnificent suddenly shouted. "Please, clear out you two."

"WHAT?" Kinkajou barked. "You didn't even give me a real chance!"

"You already told me your problem. Go find your friends a new pavilion and get out of my scales already."

Kinkajou stormed off, ranting to herself. "Ugh! I should send Peril back to burn down her pav…" her words trailed off into inaudible snarls. Her scales had become completely red in the short time it took her to fly down from Queen Magnificent's pavilion.

* * *

"Queen Magnificent said _WHAT_?!" Glory roared after Kinkajou gave her the bad news.

"I don't believe her!" Tsunami said. "That fake Queen didn't care when you told her Blister and Morrowseer killed Kestrel?! I should go rip her head off right now! Then Glory could just take the throne with ease."

"I can kill anyone I want myself if I really wanted to, thank you very much," Glory said, sporting an annoyed glare. "So stand down."

"You're sounding like a Queen already, Glory," Sunny said.

"I have to start if I'm going to."

"I'll never get used to the idea of Glory being Queen," Starflight said. "Will I have to bow down to her all the time?"

"I think it's kinda hot," Deathbringer said.

Glory hit him across the head. "Nobody asked for a smartass remark," she hissed. "Don't speak if you aren't going to say something important. Please." She started to head off.

"Where are you going?" Peril asked.

"To deal with this fake Queen myself," Glory answered. "It's clear to me she's going to have to hear from me in person, one on one. I want all of you to wait here for me."

"Just don't hurt her," Kinkajou said. "Please."

"I'll only do that if she tries to hurt me. Which I don't see happening. Asking Magnificent to fight would probably be no different than asking Scarlet or Blister not to kill someone."

* * *

"I'm here to see Queen Magnificent," Glory told the guard, the same one that was there when Kinkajou paid her a visit. "And don't think I didn't hear about how she dealt with our issue when Kinkajou was here. I'm not going to let her do that to me. I'll sit right there in her pavilion all day and night if I have to, until she hears me out."

"Wait, you can't just—" the RainWing guard began. "Oh, why do I bother? Nobody listens to me."

"Magnificent!" Glory bellowed.

"Excuse me! Can I help you?"

"You'd better this time. I heard from Kinkajou you didn't care that one of my friends died."

"I-I was dealing with urgent business!"

"What can be more urgent than murder? I'd love to hear what you have to say about that."

"W-Well…you see, my guest…when Kinkajou—"

"What kind of Queen stammers?!" Glory snapped. "This is what I came here about. Your tribe needs a _real Queen_ , not some once-a-month-wannabe Queens. I'm the kind of dragon you need as Queen."

" _You_?" Magnificent tried not to laugh. "You're barely beyond your dragonet years."

Glory snorted disapprovingly. "Yeah, well, this dragonet survived four years in Scarlet's arena. I've got more experience than any of you fake Queens combined. Don't believe me, I'll challenge all of you for your throne. Queen Grandeur, too. Let's fight, right now."

"We don't f-fight here. We have our own way to decide on a new Queen."

"Ugh. Fine. What is it?"

"The RainWing Royal Challenge."

"That sounds like a fight to the death to me. Whose neck do I have to break first? Or do I have to melt the eyeballs of one of you with my venom to claim the throne?"

"Er. Neither. You don't kill any of us to become the next queen. We aren't barbarians like the other tribes."

"Then how does someone become the new Queen?" she asked, then quickly added, "And not be a fake one like any of you."

"The Royal RainWing Challenge is made up of five challenges," Magnificent continues. She chose to ignore Glory's insult. "You find any four dragons to make up your team, and we go to the Arboretum."

"Arboretum?"

"Yes. Our arena."

"The last time I was in an arena, I had to melt the SkyWing Queen's face," Glory said

"I suggest you start getting your team together," Magnificent said, ignoring her remark about Scarlet. "Not that it will matter. The six of you will be up against all six of the Queens."

"That's great. Now I can say I was part of dethroning six queens at one time."

* * *

"So who decides on the challenges anyway?" Glory asked as she landed in the middle of the Arboretum

"I do," answered Magnificent, "since I am the current Queen. I decided on Fruit Eating, Tree Climbing, Sloth Gathering, Distance Throwing, Tree Diving, and Flower Arranging…"

"And a talking contest!" Kinkajou interrupted, provoking Glory to glare at her. ""What?! You'd win for sure with me on your team!"

"I don't think talking counts as a contest Kinkajou."

"Oh!" she groaned. "Stinky sloths and rotten papayas!"

"Excuse me!" Glory said. Not that she cared, but she'd heard some of the RainWings in the audience muttering. "No foul mouthing missy!"

Glory looked around. So far, her team was made up of herself, Kinkajou, Jambu, the blind RainWing Tamarin — Glory hoped she wouldn't regret Kinkajou convincing her to trust someone who was blind —, and Jambu. She needed two more teammates before they could begin these challenges, and soon or else they'd have to forfeit.

"Get outta the way everyone else, I'm serving our new queen!" a voice suddenly called, then a female RainWing called Bright came out of nowhere, and tripped right over Kinkajou in midair.

"Hey!" Kinkajou cried.

And then Bright went crashing into a tree, front side first.

"Ooh!" several RainWings complied in curiosity, for they had never seen a RainWing crash like Bright just did before.

"Oh!" Bright screamed. "My leg! My tail! I ate a tree!"

"Ugh," Glory groaned. "Three moons! Who else? And don't try to kill yourself on the way down here. Please." Then she looked around. "And can someone take Bright to the infirmary?"

"Choose me!" a female RainWing suddenly called out. "I'm brilliant at flower arranging."

"Yeah. If you even quickened your flower arranging skills," Kinkajou muttered. Glory gently but disapprovingly flicked Kinkajou with her tail. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"We need anyone we can get to join us. There has to be six of us on the team or we forfeit our chance."

Kinkajou lowered her head. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

"It's either her or Bromeliad at this point," Glory sighed. "Your choice."

"Anyone but Bromeliad. Please!" Kinkajou curled up in a ball right in front of Glory's front legs, and her scales changed to an ugly acid green.

 _That worked better than I expected._ She turned to the new RainWing. "Very well er…"

"I'm Liana!" she said, as she flew down beside Glory.

"But we still need one more. Kinkajou, Jambu, Liana, Tamarin, and I only makes five."

"I can join in, if you want me to," another called Heliconia said, flying out from the audience. "I don't think anyone else will want to."

"The first challenge is…Fruit Eating!" Queen Magnificent declared. "I will take part in this challenge. Who are you sending forward, Glory?"

 _Erm._

Glory's eyes stopped on Kinkajou when she saw the little RainWing sporting a "Please please please pick me!" expression.

"I choose Kinkajou."

"YES!" Kinkajou shouted. She began running around excitedly, hugging every dragon on her team. Only Glory, Jambu, and Tamarin seemed to enjoy it though.

"Is she insane? Kinkajou is my worst student!"

"Silence Bromeliad!" Glory hissed. _Or else you'll find out how my venom burns._ "Next time I'll come over there and toss you around like the dead weight I know you are."

"Can we stop with all the threats?" Magnificent said. "We're never going to get on with the challenges at this rate."

"Fine," Glory hissed. "Kinkajou will outeat you and not get sick from it, Magnificent. You haven't seen her when you throw a platter of fruit in front of her. She's the most ravenous dragon I've ever seen when it comes to eating fruit. That's why I chose her for this challenge. She can't lose."

 _We'll see about that,_ Magnificent thought. _I know Kinkajou well. I planned for this. Nobody will suspect a thing._

Minutes later, Kinkajou and Magnificent were sitting down in front of the largest mounds of fruit Glory and her friends had ever seen. Kinkajou was licking her lips anxiously, waiting for the judge to say "go!", while Magnificent didn't seem all too excited about making a glutton of herself in front of so many dragons.

"Begin!"

Kinkajou immediately ripped five papayas apart and gulped them down in seconds before Magnificent even ate two whole ones. She then went after two melons and ate them all in less than two minutes.

"Three moons!" Peril exclaimed. "Where does she put all that fruit? I've never seen such a small dragon eat so much!"

"Never underestimate the small ones!" Sunny squealed, as if she sounded offended that Peril doubted small dragons.

"I never did!" Peril said defensively. "I've just never known small dragons to have such an appetite. I hope she doesn't regret it later. If Kinkajou throws up before Magnificent does or surrenders, then she loses the challenge."

"Go Kinkajou!" Jambu cheered. "Show them why Glory deserves to be the new Queen!"

"BOO!" another RainWing called. "We don't need a new Queen! Everything is fine how it is!"

Tsunami responded by taking a mango that Riptide had been munching on in curiosity and chucking it at the RainWing. It exploded all over him, and his scales became white as snow with fear.

"Get the blue dragon out of here! She's wasting fruit!"

"Any of you touch me and your scales won't be red because you made them that way," Tsunami threatened. "I'll rip off your ruffs."

Several RainWings flared their ruffs at Tsunami but she didn't care. They probably didn't even know how to aim their fangs to spit their venom like Glory did. Glory was more dangerous than all of them combined.

"Wow!" Clay gasped. "She ate that watermelon in not even half a minute. I can't believe it."

"Go Kinkajou!" Riptide cheered, then he munched down on a replacement mango. He wasn't going to let Tsunami chuck this one at somebody, so he was eating it faster than the previous one.

 _Yes!_ Magnificent thought when Kinkajou snatched up the next papaya on the pile. _Eat that one and I'll win!_

"Why is Magnificent always looking at Kinkajou like that?" Heliconia asked.

"A better question is, why is she eyeballing that papaya like that?" Liana questioned. "She has her own fruit mound, why would she want a papaya from Kinkajou's mound?"

"I don't think she wants it," Glory said. "She wants Kinkajou to eat it so she gets sick! It's rotten fruit!"

"She's cheating?!" Jambu gasped.

"Kinkajou! Don't eat that papaya! Magnificent did something to it! Look at how she's glaring at you now."

 _What?_

Kinkajou's head snapped around to look at Magnificent, who immediately turned her glare away from the little RainWing too late. Kinkajou had seen her eying the papaya anxiously. She'd never doubt Glory, so she tossed the papaya off the ledge; it exploded below, and left behind a horrible smell, confirming Glory's thoughts that it was rotten, and would have made Kinkajou so sick that she'd throw up and lose the contest.

"Keep an eye on what fruit you grab from here on out!" Glory instructed. "Someone may have hidden more rotten fruit in the mound so you lose. There's a cheater in our midsts!" Her head whipped around to Magnificent, who nearly choked on a piece of melon when she saw Glory glaring at her.

Suddenly, the judge announced: "The winner is Kinkajou!"

"No!" the other queens shouted.

"YES!" came an uproar from Glory's team and friends.

"Good going Kinkajou!" Glory shouted. She hugged the little RainWing when Kinkajou returned, her scales being a mix of lavender, the color of delight, and pink-rose, the colors of joy, happiness, and sometimes love.

"I could have beaten her!" Magnificent growled as she returned to her seat.

Kinkajou laughed. "You'll never be half the glutton I am!"

"The next challenge will begin shortly!" the judge announced. "Team leaders, decide on who will compete in the Tree Climbing Challenge!"

"Tamarin should go!" Kinkajou suggested.

"W-What?" Glory choked. "I want to trust her, but how will she safely climb a tree when she can't see where the finish line is?"

Tamarin stepped forward without any help. Her pale blue eyes met Glory's.

"I have practiced tree climbing my entire life, ma'am," she said. Glory was shocked there were any RainWings here that new such a respectful term. "I have the scars to show for it, but I know the trees we'll be using by heart. Kinkajou says they always use the ones I practiced climbing on my entire life. All you'll need to do is get me there. I can do this, trust me."

"Alright," Glory said. "I trust you, Tamarin."

"I will not disappoint any of you. I promise."

"We choose Queen Exquisite to compete in the Tree Climbing Challenge!" Grandeur declared.

"And we choose Tamarin!" Glory declared back. She scowled at the five fake Queens, and Grandeur too.

" _Tamarin_?!" the fake Queens laughed. "This will be easy!"

"That's what you all think," Glory muttered to her team and friends. "Tamarin will surprise everyone. None of you even know she's our secret weapon."


	26. Chapter 25: The Blind and The Bold

**Author's note:** This will be about all I say this time. The part with Tamarin climbing a tree was mostly written by mikey1393drago, who, as usual, also proofread this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 25:  
The Blind and The Bold**

"Just be careful, Tamarin," Glory instructed the blind RainWing. "These fake Queens have already shown they're not above cheating to keep their throne."

"I'll hear Exquisite coming if she tries anything," Tamarin said. "My hearing is my best sense."

"Still. I don't trust them. I'll keep an eye on them when you're climbing. Especially Exquisite."

"Tell that white-eyed dragonet to get over here or she forfeits," Exquisite called. "I'm waiting."

Glory's ruff flared up immediately. "You'll regret saying that when she beats you!"

"Let me go after her!" Kinkajou snarled. Glory had to hold her back. "I'll teach her not to mess with my friends!"

"You can't, I'm afraid," Heliconia sighed. "You already competed. We all only get one shot."

"She'll learn when I win," Tamarin said calmly. "Don't worry."

The blind RainWing fearlessly stepped forward to where Exquisite stood at the edge of the tree.

"Glory is a fool for trusting any blind dragon to be on her team," Exquisite muttered.

Tamarin blinked, then her ruff flared. She'd had about enough now. "At least I learned to fly on my own. Dragons that can see don't even do that. And who did Grandeur choose to tend the Royal Garden?" She pointed at herself, but she wasn't feeling any pride as she reminded Exquisite of this. Her scales had changed from their usual purple hue to dark red.

Deciding to ignore any further taunting, Tamarin reached for the tree she knew was there, and waited for the call of the judge before she began her climb.

"Start!" shouted the judge dragon and she watched them both speed climb up the tree.

Tamarin shot up the tree rapidly unaware if Fruit Bat was neck and neck with her. She could hear her climbing at a rapid pace, so maybe she has indeed matched her speed momentarily. The cheers from her teammates and Glory's friends she heard as clear as wind through the trees, egging her on to keep at this velocity. She'd never had anyone care so much about her until this very day, and there was no way she would want to let them down either. Suddenly there was a snap of a branch, and before she could move, it collided with her head, dazing her. Despite how blind she was, she could still figure out exactly where sound comes from, and this particular noise had come from the tree Exquisite was climbing. Now she understood her opponent would go as far as cheating in the contest. She heard Glory's bellow far below.

"Cheater! She broke that on purpose! Watch yourself, Tamarin!"

Recovering from her daze, she hurriedly clambered higher once more listening as sharp as an eagle sees for her adversary's next move. Again there was another snap of a branch, but Tamarin continued on in a spiral to dodge it momentarily.

"Hey! Quit trying to knock me off!"

"I wouldn't dare do that to a _blind_ dragon like you!" She stressed Tamarin's condition as though she didn't care, but Tamarin just let it go.

 _No point arguing with her. Like I care if she is an old bat. I know now how she likes to win, so I'll stay on this edge of the tree so she cannot pull another fast one on me._ Tamarin again could clearly hear her friends cheering her on, giving her more reason to speed up even further. She could just imagine how far down Exquisite could be. She was much slower than she believed, and by the sound of the crowd, Tamarin knew she was the closest to the goal. By the feel of the air around her, she had already passed the two hundred meter mark, and understood only one hundred more meters were needed for her to win. With all her vigour, she sprint climbed to the final marker, felt for the coconut and then let it drop to the ground far below. The moment it smashed, the entire Arboretum completely filled with cheers. _I won! I actually won!_

She let go and nose dived towards the ground after Exquisite's Coconut crashed below, opening up her wings only meters from the earth before landing and being greeted by the embrace of Kinkajou. She heard Exquisite landing behind her, and out of sportsmanship, her shoulder was patted for the achievement.

"Well done Tamarin. I take back all that I said and done. You are far more skilled than I ever will be."

"Thank you, for your kind words."

Regardless of her sincerity, Glory still glared at Exquisite.

"You'd better take back what you said and did," she growled. "You had no right picking on a blind dragonet. You're no Queen. Get out of our sight. Now."

"But, I—" Exquisite began.

"That is no way to treat a loser, Glory," said Tamarin. "She did the best she could, despite trying to knock me off. I don't have a grudge so, what's the point in acting mean?"

"Our guardians and Morrowseer made me feel worthless when my friends and I lived under Claws of the Clouds Mountains," Glory admitted. "You honestly expect me to tolerate her acting no different towards you? Exquisite is no better than Kestrel, Webs, Dune, and Morrowseer were, as far as I'm concerned."

"Just be careful about saying that around Peril," Jambu interrupted. Somehow, the firecaled SkyWing hadn't heard what Glory said about her late mother. That or she just chose to ignore Glory, probably realizing her late mother gave her good reason to dislike her. It would be hard to like someone that wanted to kill you when you slept.

"I understand what you've been through Glory, but try not to treat others the same way. I'm sure you are thinking the same thing deep down, that despite everything that has happened to you, you really do want to change."

"Some things can't be forgiven, Tamarin. Morrowseer told Kestrel to kill me in my sleep just because I wasn't the 'wings of the sky' his prophecy wanted. Webs can be blamed for that. After Hvitur and the SkyWing egg were lost—according to Kestrel anyway—it was his idea to steal an egg from the RainWing hatchery to replace it." She paused. "I wish I was the one who killed Morrowseer, for what he wanted done to me. I'll prove to him I'm not some useless RainWing when I become the next queen of this tribe and make it the best one on all of Pyrrhia. I-I'll put any other Queen before me to shame."

Sunny nearly gasped loudly, but held it in. _Did Glory's voice just crack?_ she thought. _I've never known her to get so emotional._ Of course, Sunny couldn't blame her; out of all five of them, Glory had it the worst when they were being raised under Claws of the Clouds Mountains. Their guardians hadn't been ordered to murder her, Clay, Tsunami, or Starflight in their sleep like they had been ordered to do to Glory, for starters. They hadn't been despised for not being right either; otherwise, Sunny would have been hated just as much as Glory was for being a hybrid and a SandWing without a tail barb.

"So, look," Glory went on a moment later. "I have every reason to hate dragons like them and Exquisite. They've probably only ever wanted me dead, even before Morrowseer ordered it. There's always a part of me that wishes I'd been the one to kil…"

Clay suddenly approached Glory. "Don't," he whispered. "Peril is still grieving Kestrel. Don't let her hear you talking about her mother in this way, anymore than you have already."

"I'm sorry about all you've been through, Glory," Queen Grandeur unexpectedly said, "but can we just get on with this challenge, if you're so bent on being the next RainWing Queen?"

"Humph!" Glory snorted. "I guess there's just no point in rambling on about my past. Sorry guys." She shot a spiteful glare at Grandeur, however.

"If you're so intent on proving yourself worthy of taking our throne," Fruit Bat said, "then why don't you and Queen Grandeur go at it in the next challenge now instead? It won't hurt to have you compete early."

"But I was next!" Heliconia gasped. "You and I were going to gather as many sloths as possible in the allowed time."

"It can wait, if your team leader is so anxious to prove herself," said Dazzling.

"Fine," Glory sighed. "Name your challenge, Grandeur. Whatever it is, I accept right now."

"Distance Throwing it is, then," Grandeur declared. "We will meet at the designated course in a few moments."

Grandeur and the other Queens flew off without waiting for another response from Glory's team.

Glory gently patted Tamarin on the shoulder. "Great going, Tamarin," she said. "We never doubted you." _Unlike some RainWings,_ she bitterly thought. _When I'm Queen, I'll make sure Exquisite is punished for what she did to you up there. I won't tolerate discrimination when I'm in charge of her._

"Are you okay?" Kinkajou asked when Glory's ruff flared and her scales started becoming red.

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed. "It just really irks me that Exquisite did that to Tamarin. Nobody should treat someone with a disability like that. When I'm Queen, I'll have anyone that mistreats a disabled dragon arrested. I don't care who they are."

"We should get to the next challenge course," Liana said. "They've already shown they're not very patient."

* * *

"Are you ready to lose now, Glory?" Magnificent called as Glory's team and friends landed near the course.

"We're 2-0 so far," Glory spat. "You should be asking yourself that!"

"BOO!" a RainWing shouted from the audience again.

Glory looked around for Riptide again, but he wasn't eating any fruit when she spotted him this time. _Damn. I can't shut them up with fruit bombs this time._

She then looked over to the Distance Throwing course, and noticed there were long lines and distance checkers down it. Beside this, Glory noticed three different targets of different sizes. There was also two scoreboards just behind where the judge sat. She assumed it was one scoreboard for each team.

Glory blinked. "What on Pyrrhia do we even do here?"

"Just what it sounds like," Grandeur sighed. "Distance Throwing. There's not much explanation needed."

"There is for someone that's never done it before," she snarled. "Namely _me_."

"Then our judge can explain the rules to you." _If she's paying attention right now, that is._ "I know! I'll throw a fruit at her!"

"Did somebody say fruit?!" the judge immediately gasped excitedly. "Where is it?" Then she noticed Glory's team and friends giving her funny looks, and she cleared her throat. "Er, right. Ahem!"

"The rules?" Glory said impatiently.

"Oh! Right. Well, the rules are simple. You just need to get the best distance for the throwing part of the challenge, then get the most points during the target practice part of the challenge. You must throw a coconut as far as you can."

"That's all there is to it? This will be easier than I thought."

 _That's what you think,_ Dazzling thought. _Even Grandeur doesn't know what we have in mind. You won't be as lucky as Kinkajou and Tamarin were. You'll fail them. That's a promise, Glory._

Glory noted the devious expression on Dazzling's face. _Come on, Starflight. Put those mind-reading abilities of your's to good use for me_ , she thought. _I'd really like to know what she's plotting now._

She noticed the course was already set up for herself and Dazzling. There were several different objects they would be throwing just in front of an "X" carved in the soil, where she and Dazzling would have to throw these objects from. They sat down on these spots, and awaited the judge's call.

"Begin!"

Glory picked up the nearest object, a coconut, immediately threw it up in the air, and then whipped around quickly to hit it with her tail. The coconut soared through the air, and when it finally came back down, it would have landed three-quarters of the way had it not been for something only Glory seemed to notice. She'd been doing something and at the last minute, Glory's tail seemed to not hit the coconut as hard as she'd wanted. There was a shocked gasp from Glory's team when it only landed a third of the way up the course.

The judge immediately flew over to where Glory's coconut was and stabbed a flag into the ground where it had landed before removing it from the course.

 _Wait,_ Glory thought. _That's not right._ There was a puddle of white where the coconut had been. _I knew I hit it hard enough, and I knew I thought it had felt light. I should have said something to the judge when she was there. Not paying enough attention will cost us. And I know who to blame._ She shot a glare at Grandeur, who returned Glory's look with one of confusion.

 _What just happened?_ Grandeur wondered. She'd never seen a coconut fail to soar a good distance before. She didn't understand why Glory was glaring at her as if it was her fault either; she was not desperate enough to win to resort to cheating or sabotage. However, she did know who was, but wouldn't throw out any accusations yet. One mishap wasn't enough proof of sabotage, but she would keep her eyes peeled for any more strange occurrences. She didn't want to have an unfair advantage over Glory; Grandeur would rather lose fairly than win unfairly.

"5 points for Glory!" the judge declared.

"That is not fair!" Kinkajou cried. "Someone punched a hole in the coconut Glory had so it would not go through the air right!"

"Don't fret yet, Kinkajou," Glory called over to her. "I'm not out yet."

"The key word being 'yet'!" Queen Magnificent shouted. "You'll never get to be our new Queen! The way everything is now is perfectly fine. The others are happy with us taking turns every month."

"I'm not!" Glory's team disagreed in unison.

"Nobody asked for a peanut gallery!" Tsunami barked. "So shut up, Magnificent!"

The RainWings in the audience all gasped at once, then began muttering amongst themselves about how Glory would not be a great queen if she had 'disrespectful friends like Tsunami'. Glory chose to ignore them. She wasn't going to prove the RainWings right. They'd learn she'd be the best Queen they'd had in decades when her team wins this competition.

"It is Queen Grandeur's turn!" the judge announced.

"They don't address her as 'Her Majesty' here?" Riptide muttered to Tsunami.

"They're probably too dumb to know how to address a queen properly," Tsunami said. "Glory won't let that fly when she's their Queen."

Grandeur picked up the coconut before her and in a motion similar to Glory, she tossed it in the air, then sent it flying with a whack of her tail. It landed near the end of the course.

"25 points for Queen Grandeur!" the judge declared. "Queen Grandeur wins the Distance Throwing Challenge!"

"Not fair!" Kinkajou said again. She threw herself down on her rear and bitterly crossed her arms before Glory even returned to where they were.

"I tried, everyone," Glory sighed. "I'll never be able to prove it, but I think one of those fake queens did something to my coconut so I would lose when it really mattered. I was supposed to prove to everyone that I'd be a good queen, and it seems they wanted to make sure I would make a fool of myself. Well, two can play at that game," she added in a low voice, glaring at Magnificent. _I wouldn't put it past you to cheat after what has been done to Kinkajou and Tamarin so far._


	27. Chapter 26: Burn's Ultimatum

**Author's note:** I'm just going to say this now. What happens to a pair of characters in this chapter does _**NOT**_ reflect my own opinions; in fact, it is completely the opposite of my opinions. I only had it happen to show how evil and hateful Scarlet can be towards any dragons (especially for being different), since she'd probably actually stoop as long as resorting to hate crimes.

* * *

 **Chapter 26:  
Burn's Ultimatum**

Queen Scarlet's guards felt nervous when Burn entered the throne room unannounced. She was a massive dragon, nearly as large as her sister, Blister, and Morrowseer; Scarlet was still larger than Burn was, however. Burn towered over Scarlet's guards as she made her way over to the SkyWing Queen.

"You're late," Scarlet hissed, "to a meeting that was your own idea. You honestly expect to be Queen when you can't even show up your own meetings on time?"

Scarlet's iron mask she wore to conceal her face made her seem more intimidating to her guards than her venom-melted face did, but not to Burn. Burn believed she could kill Scarlet if she ever had to and there'd be nothing anyone could do about it; Scarlet was bigger, but Burn was smarter. Unlike Blister, she didn't need to use her brute strength to end Scarlet's life. Burn's brain was her most dangerous weapon.

"My soldiers wouldn't shut up about what happened to my sadist of a sister in the Rainforest Kingdom," Burn sighed. "I couldn't get away from them."

"Blister? What? Was she attacked by a RainWing? Oh, the poor baby!" Scarlet taunted. "I'll write a little sob story about it and mail it to her!"

"It wasn't the RainWings. It was your former killing machine. Peril. My spies say they killed Kestrel in their attempts to kill Peril, and then Peril went after them."

"Blister's dead, isn't she? Good riddance if she is."

"Unfortunately, she escaped. Morrowseer's dead, though. Your royal killing machine got him."

"Nobody liked that worthless NightWing anyway," Scarlet remarked coldly. "There aren't any good NightWings anyway. When this war's over and we've won, you and I should find their 'secret island', and lead a genocide against them. We'll be ruling over all the kingdoms, so who would there be to stop us?"

"Nobody." Burn smiled wickedly. For a moment, some of Scarlet's guards swore they were staring at Blister if they disregarded Burn's lack of scars. "We should wipe out the RainWing tribe, too. They're more useless than Blaze. At least she can lift a weapon when a situation calls for it." Burn never would have imagined saying that about Blaze before; when they were all dragonets and Blister's Stronghold was their mother's, Blaze had been the silliest dragonet their guards had ever seen. Burn wouldn't have been surprised if Blister had tried killing Blaze when they were growing up—even though she never succeeded, if she did—like she ended up doing to two of their brothers, Scald and Singe. Burn thought their last brother, Smolder, was a fool for staying loyal to Blister all these years; he should have ran away when she and Blaze did. Burn doubted Blister would always let him live; she may end up slashing Smolder's throat in his sleep if he gets on Blister's nerves too much, like Scald and Singe did. Scald and Singe just disappeared one day two years ago when Blister had sent them to hunt in the desert, and they'd never returned. Burn had always believed Blister either went after them herself to murder them, or had sent Deathbringer after them.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Scarlet asked impatiently. "I need to get back to my arena to watch more dragons rip out each other's throats and guts. You should join us."

"I am not here to watch dragons mutilate each other," Burn said. "You and I both know _I_ will be the next SandWing Queen—I'm the smartest of my sisters, and I was our mother's favorite daughter. I deserve to be mother's heir to her throne, not Blaze and Blister. That is why I am here. But I've come to you with more than just the perfect plan to make my sisters 'disappear' forever. Since we can guarantee I'll be the next SandWing Queen, there are some things I want to be done in my terms when the war is over as soon as my sisters disappear from the face of Pyrrhia."

" _You_ are coming to _my_ kingdom with demands?" Scarlet barked. "Nobody demands anything from me! GUARDS!"

"Hear me out, Your Majesty." It made Burn sick to call anyone "Your Majesty", but she needed to stay on Scarlet's good side. She needed Scarlet's support to claim the SandWing throne. "I do not want anything from you once the war is over but the territory from the IceWings that Blaze is promising Glacier if she becomes the SandWing Queen. It will be another war, just a short one if things go according to my plan, but we need to take back that land from the IceWings when I am Queen. Then we'll make all the RainWings disappear. Wouldn't you find that _thrilling_ —" Scarlet glared at Burn for using her favorite word. _Is she insulting me?_ she wondered. "—to wipe out the entire RainWing tribe for what Glory did to your face? It's the ultimate justice for you, to wipe out Glory's entire tribe for what she did."

"What makes you believe she'd even care about a tribe of dragons she's never met?" Scarlet snarled.

"Because," Burn quickly said, "my spies say she's in the Rainforest _right now_ , competing with all their fake queens—apparently six of them take turns being Queen every month—in some game or some bullshit I don't even understand, but that's beside the point. She apparently wants the RainWing tribe to become the best tribe on Pyrrhia, and for everyone to actually respect them again. She's still a dragonet. Her dreams are too big for her scales."

Scarlet's guards began snickering and whispering amongst each other until Scarlet spat fire at all of them.

"Shut up!" she roared. Scarlet turned her attention back to Burn. "So my least favorite dragonet is in the Rainforest Kingdom." She began rubbing her talons together with a menacing glare in her eyes Burn could see in spite of her iron mask. "This will be thrilling. I never thought I'd see Glory again to carry out my revenge against her. I have it all planned out." She paused, and spun her head around at everyone before returning her gaze to Burn once again. "When I get my talons on her, her friends will have to call her gory Glory!"

Scarlet began tapping her talons and moving her tail around rhythmically, even though she did not stand up from her throne.

 _Three moons,_ Burn thought. _She's going to sing, isn't she? I knew I should have brought my ear plugs. Scarlet's singing is worse than talons scraping on a chalkboard._

Sure enough, Scarlet did begin singing. Her voice was very raspy and unpleasant on the ears. Burn was right: Scarlet was the worst singer on Pyrrhia. She almost expected the windows in the throne room to shatter as Scarlet's horrible voice carried through it.

" _Oh, it's true, the dragonets are dying!_

 _They're not going to save the day!_

 _They're coming to rest, for they know how to die!_

 _Oh, it's true, the dragonets are dying!_

 _HOORAY!_ "

 _Oh, I think I just died and went to Hell,_ Burn thought. She tried keeping her displeasure over hearing Scarlet sing from showing on her face. _I need to reconsider my allies after the war's over. Scarlet's becoming as big of a nutcase as Blister. And she sounds like a dying scavenger when she sings._

"We'll let Glory become the RainWing Queen and try to fix the RainWings," Scarlet said. "I've never ripped the head off another Queen before. It would be the most thrilling thing I have ever done!"

Burn cleared her throat. "There's something else you need to know. My assassin I sent to the Ice Kingdom...he failed to kill Queen Glacier. And supposedly she's going to be the mother of his kids."

"Sick bastard," Scarlet gagged. "What dragon in their right mind that isn't an IceWing themselves would willingly bang an IceWing? Although it must have been a very chilling experience for him!" She laughed loudly at her remark, and so did her guards, but only so she wouldn't spit fire at them again.

"I couldn't tell you what he was thinking, but he did it, and now Glacier's carrying his future offspring." The thought of SandWing-IceWing hybrids made Burn want to throw up. "Of course, they won't ever know their father. Glacier chopped off his head when he came back to do it again, and had him buried somewhere hundreds of miles from her palace so his body would never be found. As far as I can tell, only the IceWings closest to Glacier know where that is for sure. She didn't even tell Blaze."

"I'll find out," Scarlet said suddenly.

"How? Are you going to just waltz up to Glacier's door and ask kindly? That's if you can even get past their animus-touched wall that kills any non-IceWing trying to fly past it."

"With a dreamvisitor."

"A _what_?"

"A dreamvisitor. NightWing legends say that Darkstalker himself created them for himself, his soulmate Clearsight, and the animus SeaWing known as Fathom. Of course they're all dead now. That was two thousand years ago. But somehow these animus-touched treasures survived all these years on the NightWing Island. Now one of them is mine, thanks to some of my NightWing prisoners who I paid well to get all three for me. I just need to whisper the name of any dragon when I'm resting, and this—" She pulled out a star-shaped sapphire from a bag sitting on the floor beside her throne. "—will take me right into their dream."

"That is why you called it a dreamvisitor," Burn said.

"Yes. And most of the time, the dragon who is dreamvisited won't even believe it was anything but a dream, or a nightmare depending on how you look at it and who dreamvisits them, when they wake up." Scarlet paused for just a second. "Just think of the possibilities these will have in the war! We can spy on any of our enemies and learn of what they are planning, and they will just suspect it was nothing but a horrible dream! I will keep two for myself, but you can have the third to spy on your enemies. Your siblings, Coral, and Glacier in other words."

"I will do that," Burn said, taking the third dreamvisitor from Scarlet. _There are some allies I'd like to spy on with th_ _is_ _as well,_ she thought with an innocent glance at Scarlet. _But they can wait. There are probably more interesting plans going on_ _with_ _my siblings, Coral and Glacier's minds than there are in Scarlet's._

"And I'd recommend you only use it on your enemies," Scarlet said suddenly. "Your allies may understand what is happening and have you thrown in their dungeons for the rest of your life."

 _How did she know I was considering dreamvisiting her?!_ Burn thought, trying her best to not look as alarmed as she felt. _Only NightWings can read minds!_ Then it occurred to her. _I must stop thinking about this right now in case Scarlet really can read minds, before she decides to see what else I am thinking._ But it must just one of Scarlet's mind games. SkyWings can't read minds! Still, Burn wouldn't chance it any further.

"Is there anything else you wanted to tell me, as part of your ultimatum?" Scarlet suddenly asked.

"No," Burn answered slowly. "That is all."

"Then you can leave my palace so I can go watch dragons die now. That is, unless you wish to join me again."

"No, I'm fine. Thank you. I have planning I must get back to now." That was a lie, but Burn was truly unsettled by the prospect of a mind-reading SkyWing. It made no sense to her, but she would never stop thinking about it now.

And then Burn left the throne room in a hurry. Scarlet and her guards heard the massive SandWing's wings flapping before she took off, then all became silent again, except, of course, for the constant screams of Scarlet's prisoners being tortured in her dungeon. Above all, the screams of a pair of female dragons, probably SandWings based on the tone, could be heard as they were being gutted alive slowly for what Scarlet considered the worst crime any dragon could commit. If she'd had any daughters left and they'd ever fallen in love with another female dragon, Scarlet would have gutted them alive herself for it, rather than sending them to her executioner.

Scarlet believed that was the only thing a dragon could be that was worse than being an animus, whom she also had tortured and executed due to events in the distant past when an animus SeaWing called Albatross murdered a SkyWing delegate and injured another before murdering his entire family, save for his grandchildren. He'd lost his soul from overuse of his magic and his first victim of his murdering streak had been his own sister, Queen Lagoon. For good reason, SkyWings had feared animus dragons ever since, and it'd even become tradition for them to execute any animus dragons, whether they be a SkyWing, or a non-SkyWing prisoner. For the past two-thousand years, SkyWings had executed any animus who set foot in their kingdom, and it was all because of the Royal SeaWing Massacre; the SkyWing Royal Family didn't want there to be a Royal SkyWing Massacre and Scarlet felt no different about the matter now, than how all her ancestors had. The SkyWings would probably never trust any strange dragons again, especially ones that were animus.

"Ah, that's the two female SandWings one of you caught sleeping together the previous night, isn't it?" Scarlet said. She seemed to enjoy their screams that were beginning to fade away now when they suddenly picked up again.

"Yes, it is," said one of the guards. Scarlet didn't sense his regret about what was happening to them or she probably would have ripped his throat open on the spot. "They probably wish they hadn't shown their love for each other now. Your executioner is gutting them slowly just as you wished. Last I was down there, Your Majesty, he was about to take out the older one's kidneys, and was forcing the other one to watch."

"Oh, that's absolutely _thrilling_!" Scarlet said. "Now I wish I had thought to watch him put them through it from the start. I just wish I could have thought of something even worse."

"I don't believe anything could be worse than watching the one you love the most be gutted alive and there being nothing you can do about it, Your Majesty."

"That's true, but still. You know I can always try!" Scarlet turned towards the door that led to the dungeon where the execution was just concluding. "I'm going to see my executioner's work for myself before he's finished if I can. I need something gory in my life right now. It's been really boring in my arena for some time."

* * *

"Oh my!" Scarlet said as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "You outdid yourself this time. I didn't even get a chance to watch you mutilate them!" she added, sounding upset about it. "Such a pity for me."

"Your Majesty!" the executioner, a male SkyWing wearing a black silk hood over his head with two holes for his eyes in it, who was even larger than Burn, gasped. "You almost never come down here!"

"I needed some gore in my life," she said simply. "Where are the two female dragons I asked you to torture in sight of each other?"

He pointed to his latest 'work'. Two dead female dragons, neither older than ten years, bloody and hollowed out, had been laid over each other beside an oven much like the one in the crematorium at the opposite side of the palace. Scarlet knew what he'd intended to do with their remains now that they were dead, which pleased her just as much as them being dead did.

"How much did they suffer?" Scarlet pressed.

"I couldn't have made what I did any worse for them," the executioner said. "I had the younger one begging me to have mercy on her so-called girlfriend, but I answered her request by breaking through her ribcage with this—" He held up a strange hammer-like tool with a sharpened end. "—and then I cut out her heart before I went to carve up the other one like that turkey your cook got you for your hatching day that one time, oh, about half a decade ago now."

"How do you feel about it? This is the first time I've had you execute two dragons like them, and the first time you've executed loved ones where the other could see it.."

"I feel great! My heart is racing! I want to do it again, Your Majesty!" The executioner sounded sincere as he said this, but in reality, he was lying through his teeth. The truth was that he hated himself on the inside more than he ever had before in the three decades he'd been executing dragons for Scarlet, and the decade before that he'd executed prisoners for her mother, Queen Hurricane. They had done nothing wrong, really. He didn't understand why Scarlet wanted him to kill two female SandWings for loving each other. It's not like they could have used their love to threaten Scarlet as if it was magic from an animus. While he would never tell his Queen this, the executioner would never forgive himself for following Scarlet's orders to execute those two SandWing lovers. Quite honestly, as soon as Scarlet would leave, he felt like he'd want to execute himself for what he had been ordered to do. Before now, he never would have imagined in his forty plus years of executing dragons, he'd want to pack up and leave for murdering a pair of lovers he didn't even know.

"You're lying, aren't you?" Scarlet suddenly accused. "Thirty years of executing dragons for me and you've suddenly gone soft over those two? You know the laws of my kingdom! Any strange dragons must be executed! That includes a pair of female dragons that love each other. There are no exceptions."

"No, no! I'm telling the truth!" the executioner said quickly. "I would never lie to you, Your Majesty."

"Then why are you now? Why feel sorrow for these two…whores? That's about all you can call dragons like them. They'd never find males, so they went with each other instead, and now it got them gutted. I hope they're happy with their decision now!"

"It's not that I feel bad for them, Your Majesty—cause believe me, I never would," he continued lying while sounding honest. "It's just, I think I'm getting too old for this. I'm the oldest dragon living in your palace. I think it's time I retire."

Scarlet was legitimately shocked by this news. "You can't! Nobody else has the guts—" She laughed at this accidental pun when she remembered the pair of dead dragons by the furnace. "—to execute dragons like you do."

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. They are my last execution. I'll cremate them, then I am retiring. I already have the perfect replacement in mind. When he arrives, you will agree with me."

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at him, but said nothing.

The executioner went over to the furnace. One at a time, he lifted the SandWings' bodies and their other remains to the furnace door, dropped them in, and then slammed the door down. He turned around and was shocked to see Scarlet was still there.

"You know," she said slowly. "It was smart of you to choose your replacement now."

"Why is that, Your Majesty?"

"You're fired," she said, then, before the executioner could react, Scarlet drove his favorite blade deep into his neck. He dropped immediately, but was not dead yet. He would be in a few minutes though, for Scarlet had driven the blade into his jugular vein. Scarlet looked to the furnace door. "Oh, you know what would be even more thrilling than letting you bleed out?"

"N-No—" the executioner coughed. Blood gurgled from his mouth and neck wound. "Please…Your Majesty. Don't."

"Have you ever wondered what it feels like to burn alive?" she casually asked him, lifting up the door of the furnace. The smell of the pair of burning SandWings immediately began lofting through the chamber. "Of course my champion's betrayed me, so that just leaves one other option."

"N-No!"

"YES!" Scarlet roared. She lifted up the massive SkyWing, larger than herself and more experienced than her by twenty-five years, and dragged him over to the furnace. He screamed the entire time, especially as she lifted him over the edge of the furnace opening head first. She tipped him forward and he fell right in; if he'd been any larger, she would have had to cut him down to size to fit through the door. Scarlet kept the door open to enjoy the sound of her former executioner's screams as he burned alive as if it were music to her ears. When his screams finally faded away, replaced by only the smell of a smoldering SkyWing, she slammed the furnace door shut. "Now your replacement will never get to tell you goodbye. I'll be the only one that knows what happened to you down here. If anyone asks, they'll only be told that you decided to retire, and left before your chosen replacement could be alive." She paused, then began again with a sad voice. "Such a shame, though. You were the best executioner for all the time I was your Queen." Then she began shouting in an evil voice: "But I won't miss you! This is what happens to my followers when they became soft! They disappear to never be seen again!"


	28. Chapter 27: Dazzling, the Trickster

**Chapter 27:  
Dazzling, the Trickster**

"The next challenge will be Sloth Gathering in the jungle!" the judge announced from her stand. "Teams, send your next two competitors forward!"

"Please, Glory," Heliconia pleaded. "I know sloths better than anyone on your team. Next to Kinkajou, but she's already competed. There's no way I'll lose this challenge." She looked over to the other team. Queen Fruit Bat was stepping forward to the judge's stand. "They're choosing Fruit Bat?! But she doesn't even know that much about where sloths like to sleep. Oh my, this will be too easy. The judge might as well give us the win now!"

"Don't be so sure, Heliconia!" Fruit Bat called. "I've been spending the past few moments learning all I can about sloth sleeping habits from my fellow Queens! I'll be more of a challenge than you think." _And more of a challenge than any of my fellow Queens will expect,_ she thought. _I haven't told them the best part of my plan. Not even Dazzling, and she's in on this little plot of our's we have going. And nobody will suspect I did anything wrong! Except maybe Glory, but she won't be able to prove it even if she does suspect I did something._

"Where will they be going?" Glory whispered to her team. "There aren't that many sloths here, except for ones everyone has as pets, and I doubt we can just capture those ones."

"They'll have to capture wild ones in the jungle," Jambu explained.

"But how will everyone here know what is happening? Most importantly, the judge."

"She'll go with them," Liana says, "to make sure they both have a fair chance."

"That's comforting," Glory sighed sarcastically. "Because we all know how fair Fruit Bat is!"

"Fruit Bat's not fair at all!" Kinkajou interrupted.

"I was being sarcastic."

"What's sarcastic?"

"Oh, three moons." Glory talonpalmed. She'd forgotten how illiterate Kinkajou was, even for a RainWing other than herself.

* * *

Heliconia, Fruit Bat, and the judge landed somewhere deep in the rainforest.

"I don't see any sloths here," Heliconia complained.

"Because you have to look for them genius," Fruit Bat grumbled.

"Enough, you two," the judge said. "You're not here to bicker. You're here to gather sloths. So stop it or I'm declaring you both losers." She paused. "GO!"

Heliconia vanished in an instant. Fruit Bat and the judge didn't even have time to blink before she'd disappeared from their line of sight.

"I didn't know she could fly so fast!" Fruit Bat remarked.

"Then you'd better catch her," said the judge, "before she gathers ten sloths. The first of you to gather ten sloths wins this challenge. And no cheating. I will be flying after both of you to make sure whoever wins does so fairly."

Fruit Bat gave the judge a look as if to say 'Me cheat? Never!' then she flew off after Heliconia, who had already, rather amazingly, collected three sloths, all of which were still sleeping as if they hadn't been snatched suddenly from their sleeping spots by a dragon. They kept on snoring. Of course, it wasn't like the sloths weren't accustomed to the presence of the RainWings by now. Most sloths became pets of the RainWings, were in fact the ideal pet for them, and had become so accustomed to RainWings that they never showed fear when one flew past them. The sloths knew RainWings would never hurt them, so it made Sloth Gathering the perfect challenge for The Royal RainWing Challenge.

A female sloth yawned carelessly as Fruit Bat snatched it up then gently dropped it beside the other two she'd found in the time she had those thoughts, but also in that time, Heliconia had increased her total to six. She was thinking, _There's no way I_ _'ll_ _lose. I've collected six sloths already, and Fruit Bat struggled to find three. I'll make Glory and everyone else so proud. I've never made anyone proud before. Maybe Glory will make me one of her servants when I become Queen. I'd really like that._ Then she thought as she gently placed yet another sloth in her pile, _Okay, seven down now. Three to go. But where's Fruit Bat?_

 _CRASH!_

Heliconia immediately crashed to the ground without a scream or any noise. She didn't know what hit her, nor did the judge, who almost wanted to call off the challenge for her and Fruit Bat's safety, until she found out what happened, but when she saw that Fruit Bat was unharmed and returning with two more sloths, bringing her total to eight now. Heliconia's total remained at six.

The judge blinked. "F-Fruit Bat is the winner…by default!"

* * *

"Fruit Bat cheated! I'm telling you!" Glory yelled at the judge.

"I can't do anything about it!" the judge yelled back. "I didn't see what happened to Heliconia, so I can't accuse anyone of cheating!"

"Just let it go, Glory," Jambu said. "We can't do anything to convince the judge otherwise."

"I won't let it go! I know Fruit Bat did something! She can't be trusted."

"Next challenge!" the judge suddenly declared. "Tree Diving. Team leaders, chose your competitors quickly."

"I choose Jambu," Glory declared.

"And I choose Queen Dazzling," Queen Grandeur declared at the same moment.

"The rules are simple for the Tree Diving Challenge," the judge took over. "The two competitors must climb to the very top of this tree, wait for my signal, and then dive down. Whoever reaches the ground again first is the winner. And no funny business this time!" She shot a glare at Fruit Bat. "I don't understand why Glory's team was off to such good starts with Kinkajou and Tamarin, and now they have lost two challenges in a row, but I'm starting to think somebody here isn't playing fair. If I find out that is the case, I will cancel the Royal Challenge and decide in Team Glory's favor."

It took five minutes for Jambu and Dazzling to reach the top of the tree the judge had referred to.

"Good luck!" he said cheerfully.

Dazzling gave him a cold shoulder—she didn't even look in his direction—and this hurt Jambu on the inside. His scales immediately switched from pink-rose to a jet black hue that meant a RainWing was upset; he looked almost like a RainWing-NightWing hybrid, with his mix of pink-rose and black scales.

"See? That's what our children could look like one day, Glory," Deathbringer cracked. "I rather like the sound of 'King Deathbringer'." Glory whacked him _hard_ with her tail. "Ow! What? I'm just telling the truth!"

"'Our kids'!" she scoffed. "You think I'd sleep in a hammock with you long enough to get pregnant? Hah!"

"Glory!" Sunny gasped. "That's just wrong! You hurt Deathbringer's feelings."

"You sound like a child, just the way you said that."

"She's right, Glory," Starflight said. "You know Deathbringer likes you and cares about you—"

"And he's also a paid murderer."

"Formerly!" Deathbringer interrupted. "I only serve you now, Glory, and I will never accept payment to kill someone ever again."

Glory ignored him. "Fine, whatever, you two. I'm sorry Deathbringer. But slow it down. We've only known each other a few days. I'm not gonna swap my genes with you yet. So please, do me a favor, and don't get your hopes up." _Are all NightWings this quick to sleep with a beautiful girl like me? Three moons! If Starflight ever starts acting like this, I'll spit on him with my venom._

"Three blood red moons, Deathbringer!" Tsunami barked suddenly. "You made us miss the start of the challenge!"

"Relax, Tsu," Riptide whispered. "Jambu's still in the lead, at least."

"Don't give me a nickname, Riptide. You sound like my mother."

"Go Jambu!" Kinkajou and Tamarin shouted. "You can out-dive Dazzling any day!"

Jambu's scales became the brightest rose-pink anyone had ever seen.

"Stop being pink!" Glory snapped. "Make those scales of yours indigo! Show your pride and determination to win, Jambu!"

"Glory the coach," Tsunami muttered. "Hooray. Ow!" she hissed when Sunny whacked her with her tail. "What?"

"Be supportive!" Sunny barked. "Why are you so negative about this?"

"Because those fake Queens are too stupid to realize they're ruining their tribe! We should do this my way, and have Glory take the throne by force."

Clay stepped between them. "Stop this. We're not from here. We need to respect how the RainWings do things. How do you think any other tribe would feel if one of them came barging in and tried taking the throne by playing games?"

"Scarlet would rip them apart," Peril said.

"Burn would chain them up in Scarlet's dungeon," Starflight said.

"Blister would just chop them up slowly and have them for dinner," Riptide said. "Or kill them, stuff them, and add them to her collection of weird things."

"Blaze would flirt with them if they're a guy," Sunny said. "And they'd never get into the Ice King…"

"ENOUGH!" Tsunami roared. "I'm getting a migraine. You're worse than a bunch of chattering scavengers."

"Watch out Jambu!" Glory gasped.

Jambu saw her at the last moment and dove out of the way of Dazzling at the last moment.

"Hey!" Jambu cried. "Watch where you're flying! This is my space! Get back to your own."

"Don't let her get to you, brother!" Glory called.

"Brother?" Jambu gasped. His scales immediately became indigo just as she'd demanded of him moments ago. _She never called me brother before!_

Now diving nose-first, Jambu increased the speed at which he fell through the air. He felt so proud suddenly, more than he ever had in his life, when…

"Dazzling wins!" the judge shouted.

Jambu was still several meters above the jungle floor when the judge declared this, and his wings lost their feeling, his scales became white as snow, and then he fell rapidly to the ground, crashing right in front of Glory. He groaned loudly, and his scales remained the same color.

"I'm sorry, sister," he said weakly. "I don't know how she got ahead of me. I was diving down from up there faster than I ever have before."

Glory and Tsunami helped him up, then Glory gave him a pat on the back.

"It's alright," she said. "You did your best. Nothing we can do about cheaters. I don't know how Dazzling did it, but there's no way she got ahead of you that quickly without help. I'm going to figure out what she did if even it keeps me up all night. After we've won this, too."

"But I failed you," Jambu said. "How can you not be mad at me?"

"You tried your hardest, and you _should_ have won," Glory sighed, "but Dazzling did something to get ahead of you when she shouldn't have. I just know she did."

"I'm next!" Liana said excitedly. "The judge said the next challenge is Flower Arranging."

"And you'll have to go up against Splendor," Glory reminded her. "Just remember, if you win this, we'll be tied in how many wins we have, and we'll still have a chance to get ahead of them if they do a tiebreaker challenge. Do your best out there, Liana. I believe in you." She turned to Deathbringer. "I want to talk to you about something before the Flower Arranging Challenge starts. It's urgent."

Deathbringer nodded. He seemed to understand what it was Glory wanted to discuss with him away from her team, and even her friends.

They stopped several yards away from everyone else, where nobody would hear their conversation. They would speak in whispers, however, just to be safe.

"Deathbringer," she whispered. "I want you to spy on the other queens during this next challenge. We've never seen what they're up to. Somebody needs to during this challenge, if Liana is going to stand a fair chance."

"I agree," Deathbringer whispered back. "I got a bad feeling about all of them from the moment we first met them. We can't trust any of them. Except maybe Grandeur, but I question her decision to let anyone who wants to have their chance at her throne for a month."

"My chances of being Queen depend solely on this next challenge," Glory went on. "We need to be tied with Grandeur's team, then we can worry about winning breaking the tie after that. It's all we can do at this point."

"Don't worry, Glory." Deathbringer rested a talon on her shoulder. "I will not fail you. You _will_ be the next RainWing Queen. I promise."

 _I won't tell him this yet,_ Glory thought, _but if Deathbringer doesn't fail me here, I'll consider having him on the throne by my side. All Queens need a King, and I can't exactly trust any of these RainWings to be my future husband. They'd ruin this place if I had to go on leave for whatever reason and leave one of them in charge. At least Deathbringer would make a competent King. But by the Three Moons, I never thought my chances at being Queen would depend on him alone. He'd better not let me down._


	29. Chapter 28: The Flower Challenge

**Author's note:** Just so people know, I'm going to be posting quite a few chapters today. Since I've last updated, I've written chapter 27 (already posted) to chapter 33.

* * *

 **Chapter 28:  
The Flower Challenge**

Deathbringer was watching Grandeur's team with sharp eyes from the trees where they'd never see him; in fact, only Glory knew he was even there, or where he'd flown off to. When her friends had asked her, Glory had acted as if she didn't know where he'd went now.

"The rules of the Flower Arranging Challenge are very simple," said the judge. "You must use any of the flowers before you to create a picture. Whoever creates the better picture will be the winner. Begin!"

 _My area of expertise,_ Liana thought. _Glory will be honored when I am finished with my flower art, and not just because it'll give our team another win. I'll make the best flower art anyone ever has in this challenge, and Glory will make me part of her royal team when she's Queen._

She began arranging some sort of blue-green flower she didn't remember the name of in a shape that was unrecognizable at first, as the minutes went by, it began to make sense. Her flower art would be a RainWing when it was finished. She quickly went to working with the white and blue flowers in the tray to construct the RainWing's eyes, which she remarkably finished in less than three minutes. She ran around her project to what must be its head and began arranging golden and red flowers together in the shape of, of course, a row of flowers, so that it looked like the dragon was wearing several flowers around the back of her head.

Splendor's project was not going as quickly, or as well as Liana's was. She seemed to question her decision to make a likeness of a sloth out of flowers when she caught a brief glimpse of Liana's flower RainWing, which was already a third of the way complete. Her team couldn't believe how quickly she was arranging her flowers into a recognizable shape; she really was the best at it, it seemed.

 _It'd be such a shame if something happened to it,_ Splendor thought, trying not to laugh, _and Glory never became the next Queen because of flower art. She'd probably hate every flower she ever sees from here on out_. She had just finished the eye of her sloth, but when the audience compared her project to Liana's, there was no doubting Liana was well on the way to winning. Even though RainWings were biased towards sloths, Liana's flower art looked so much more colorful, well thought out, and beautiful than Splendor's ever would. This clearly showed who had more experience with flower art.

Liana stepped back to look at her art in full; she'd just finished the upper snout. Liana brought over a tray of light green flowers, which she would use to construct the lower snout, neck, and under side of her flower RainWing. The face was already complete, but now Liana needed to get the jaws complete before she could move onto constructing the RainWing's neck and chest. In her mind, she imagined the final result being a portrait of a certain special RainWing on her team.

 _She'll be really surprised when it's finished!_ Liana thought.

 _What are they doing?_ Deathbringer thought from his hiding spot, when he saw two of Grandeur's team backing away in a way that was nothing but suspicious to him. When they disappeared into the jungle, then reappeared a moment later at a different spot, crawling through the foliage, seemingly toward where Liana was hard at work on her flower RainWing, Deathbringer immediately took off through the jungle after them. He didn't care if anyone saw him. He needed to stop Magnificent and Exquisite from sabotaging Liana's flower art.

 _They're such sore losers,_ he thought. _They will regret this when I bring them before Glory. Queens or no queens, I'll handle them however I wish. They aren't going to cheat again. I'll make sure of it. And if they think they can avoid me, they'll be sorely disappointed. I'm the best tracker anyone can get. I could track them if I were blindfolded and had one wing tied behind my back. They're sloppy. It's easy to hear where they are crawling._

"Nobody will ever know what happened," Exquisite whispered to Magnificent when they stopped in the jungle just behind where Liana was still hard at work; her flower RainWing was now more than half complete. But only for a little bit longer. When they were done here, she'd have to rush to fix what was about to happen to it, and she'd never get it fixed before Splendor had her flower sloth complete. She'd win by default.

"Yes," Magnificent whispered back. "All we need to do is frighten those howler monkeys, and they'll run right out onto the course, and absolutely destroy Liana's art. She'll never have time to fix it before Splendor completes her's."

Exquisite lifted up a decent-sized stone from the ground in front of her talons and readied herself to throw it up at the family of howler monkeys that were too busy preening each other to care about a pair of RainWings, when…

"What are you two doing?!" a male voice roared. "Put that down!"

Even the dragons in the audience and the two competing stopped to look at the commotion erupting in the jungle. Suddenly, two RainWings were tossed out of the jungle, and a NightWing rushed out after them. He stopped to tower over them.

"Deathbringer!" Tsunami gasped. "What are you doing?"

"You should be asking Exquisite and Magnificent that," he said. "I found these two over there in the jungle, about to frighten those howler monkeys out onto the course so they'd ruin Liana's flower art, and Splendor will have her's complete before Liana could repair the damage. I overheard them say it all."

Everyone gasped, especially the judge.

"Then I'm afraid I have no choice but to declare Liana the winner by default," she announced loudly. "Although I believe she would have been the winner regardless, assuming things went fairly."

Liana was nearly finished with her flower RainWing already. She just needed to finish the shoulder, do some final touches on the vanilla-hued robe it was wearing, and then it was complete.

"That looks just like—" Sunny began.

"—Glory!" the rest of her friends and team finished.

"And she made me dressed up like a Queen!" Glory gasped. "Right down to the flower crown and a robe. I like that. It's going to become reality very soon, too," she added.

Sure enough, even Glory saw the resemblance. Just as Liana had hoped, she felt honored by this portrait; it was such a shame they couldn't move it to her future pavillion when she was Queen. This was the most perfect piece of art she'd ever seen; she'd hang it up on the wall of the pavillion forever if she could.

"B-But—" Grandeur stammered. "If Liana wins, then that means our two teams are tied at three wins each. Kinkajou, Tamarin, and Liana from Glory's team have won; Fruit Bat, Dazzling, and myself have won on my team. What are we going to do now, if we are tied? This has never happened before!"

The judge flew over to them, while Liana continued her work on her flower art even though she'd been declared the winner. She wanted to finish it for Glory.

"We will have one more rapid challenge," the judge explained, "to break this tie." She waved her tail at Glory and Grandeur. "The two team leaders will compete in…"

 _Compete in what?!_ Glory thought anxiously. _Whatever you choose, I can beat Grandeur at it,_ she additionally thought confidently.

"…Tree Finding. The first to locate a specific tree," the judge continued, "will be the winner, and she will be our next Queen. The tree I want you to look for is the Cecropia."

 _What is a Cecropia?_ Glory wondered. _I don't know anything about the trees that only grow here._

"Tamarin, let's go look for sloths!" Kinkajou randomly piped up.

 _What is she talking about?_ Then it dawned on Glory. _Wait a minute. She's giving me a hint, isn't she? Look…for the sloths. Cecropia must be where sloths like to gather the most. Thank you, Kinkajou._

Glory was the first to dart off when the judge shouted "Go!", much to Grandeur's surprise. She wanted this challenge to end fairly, but she really hadn't expected Glory to be so quick to understand what they needed to find.

 _Oh, come on. Where are the sloths?_ Glory thought as she zigzagged through the rainforest with Grandeur and the judge on her tail. _I need to find them to find the tree so I can become the next Queen. Who knew my future would ever depend on sloths? Sloths…Sloths…Sloths...? Come on, where are they?_ Then she saw something climbing up a tree. _THERE!_

Glory soared toward a strange looking tree with several sloths climbing all over it, trying to find perfect places to sleep. This tree possessed large, circular, palmately lobed leaves, and had very few branches; she could barely call it a tree.

"Glory is the winner!" the judge cried. "And you broke the record for the fastest time for finding a Cecropia tree!"

 _They actually keep records of anything?_ Glory thought. _That's a miracle._

Grandeur wanted to say, 'I cannot believe it!', but instead she said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty." Then she and the judge both bowed down at Glory's talons. "You earned this."

"W-Wait? I won?" Glory gasped. "I won! I'm the new RainWing Queen! I can't believe it. My friends will believe this even less. I came in all the way out here a nobody and I'll come back to them a Queen! I must be the youngest RainWing to ever earn the throne."

"You are." Grandeur smiled, standing back up. "However, I want you to do one other thing." She ripped a leaf from the Cecropia tree and spat her venom on it, right in the center. "Venom test."

 _Wait, why?_

Glory spat her own venom exactly where Grandeur had, and much to her shock, it counteracted the effect Grandeur's venom was having on the leaf. In a few spots, anyway.

"I sensed that about you the moment you arrived, Your Majesty," Grandeur explained. "You and I, we are distantly related. You are the true heir to my throne, and you have earned it, as well."

"I-I can't believe this," Glory stammered. "I'm _related_ to royalty?"

"It seems so. Now let us go break all this news to your friends. They will be shocked to learn they've been best friends with _two_ princesses—you and Tsunami—for their entire lives."

Glory wiped her eyes and chuckled softly. _I need to stop crying before we get back to them,_ she thought. _I can't let them see me like this. I'm the new Queen, and when everyone finds out, I need to have my emotions under control. I can't be the new Queen and show up crying at the big reveal._


	30. Chapter 29: Long Live Queen Glory!

**Chapter 29:  
Long Live Queen Glory!**

"So, why didn't you think to compare our venom sooner?" Queen Glory asked Grandeur as they flew back to where the rest of their teams were waiting.

"I'd suspected something special about you from the moment we met, but I wanted to wait until the perfect moment to confirm my suspicions," Grandeur answered. "And what moment would've been better than after you earned your position as Queen of our tribe?" She paused. "I think you will make a great Queen. They needed new and younger to lead them. I couldn't keep doing it forever, and letting those five run the kingdom amongst each other was one of my worst decisions ever made as Queen. Don't make the same mistakes I have, Glory. That starts with not trusting anyone else to sit on your throne. You will figure out the rest with time, I'm sure."

"You aren't going to tell me what a Queen shouldn't do?"

"How would you have any personal experience to pass onto your daughters when that time comes, then? I can't just teach you how to be a Queen. I can give you some starting advice today, but the rest will be up to you, Glory. I'm sure you will do well as Queen, however. My heart tells me you will be the best one we've had since I earned the throne."

Glory blinked away tears, "You really think so?"

"Absolutely." Grandeur nodded. "I know a good Queen when I see one. I didn't say this before, but I'd thought to myself when you all first arrived, 'Glory has natural leadership skills. She'd make a grand Queen one day.' I just never imagined that day being so soon."

"I-I won't let you down."

"I know you won't." Grandeur smiled at her. "Now, come along, dear. We must tell your friends this exciting news. I'm sure they are waiting to hear the results of this challenge. I can't say my fellow Ex-Queens will be as happy about this joyous occasion as I am. They never really wanted a proper Queen to succeed them. But this is for the best of our kingdom that you do, Glory. You need to bring this tribe back to its, and I apologize if this sounds like a joke, former glory. RainWings didn't always used to be this lazy and carefree. If you read more in depth about Pyrrhia's legends, you will learn how formidable we were in the past. Especially during the time of Darkstalker. RainWings of that era in history gave even the SeaWings trouble."

"I'll have to do better at leading the tribe than…"

"Queen Anaconda."

"I'll have to do better at leading the tribe than Queen Anaconda did," Glory began again. "I will have to train them all to be the best fighters ever, if they are to get involved in this war, and help my friends and I defeat Scarlet, Blister, and Burn."

"You will need help," Grandeur said. "You can't train them all yourself."

"That's where Tsunami and Deathbringer will come in."

"And who will fight with us against them? The SeaWings are with Blister, and the MudWings and Burn's soldiers are with Scarlet."

"I will send a letter to Queen Glacier and Blaze," Glory said. "They will fight with us when I tell them my intentions. They may even send dragons from the Ice Kingdom here to help me, Tsunami, and Deathbringer train everybody, if I can convince them. I'll get on that immediately after I tell my friends they're looking at the new RainWing Queen. I can't wait to see their faces."

Sure enough, just as she and Grandeur came back into sight of the waiting dragons, she heard Sunny shout, "Glory's back!"

"That's _Queen_ Glory now!" she laughed as she landed.

"Queen Glory?!" Tsunami screeched in alarm.

"Yep. That's right. You must bow down to me now."

"And be a talonlicker?" Tsunami faked a gagging sound. "No thank you."

"I call dibs on sitting next to Her Majesty's throne!" Deathbringer said immediately.

"You just want to love me up now that I'm a Queen!" Glory hissed.

Deathbringer raised his eyebrows. "Absolutely!" He goes about touching her body, much to her displeasure.

"Score!" she suddenly shouted and lashed her tail up between Deathbringer's hind legs.

"Eeep!" the former assassin squealed in the highest-pitched voice anyone had ever heard. "Oh, blood red...moons and fireballs…" Then he thought, as slowly as he had spoken, _That's twice now…She really...means business. Best thing…ever. A female...playing hard to…get. I like females like...that._

Glory grinned. "Much better. I like you down there."

"It's a good thing Deathbringer is in agony right now," Jambu muttered goodnaturedly. "She'd better not say that around him otherwise." He grinned back at the others.

Glory immediately charged at her half-brother. "GET!" she demanded and he backed up several meters, only to end up hiding behind Kinkajou and Tamarin. "I didn't mean 'down there' like that! I swear, if all NightWings are perverts like him…"

"Excuse me!" Starflight gasped. "I'll have you know my mind is clean! Thank you very much."

"Thank the moons for that," Tsunami whispered. "We don't need you lecturing us about how dragonets are made." _Not that any of us still need to figure it out. We're way ahead of you on that, Starflight._ She nearly grinned at Riptide, but stopped just to avoid doing something extremely embarrassing.

Deathbringer now realized how close his head was to Glory's midriff, with a clear sight to between her hips. "I would like it down here…if I weren't…in pain…"

Glory lashed her tail in a threatening manner again, intending to crack Deathbringer across the back of the head this time if he didn't straighten up.

"Keep it up!" she hissed.

"I'm sorry…Your Majesty! I'll be more…careful…about what I say."

"Good boy." Glory smiled contently. "Now grovel at my feet. And no talonlicking." _Or else I'll kick your teeth down your throat,_ she thought. "I don't want your slobber all over my talons."

"Long Live…Queen Glory!" Deathbringer groaned as he groveled at her talons.

"I didn't hear you," she laughed.

"Long Live Queen Glory!" he said more loudly, but not without faint pain lingering in his voice.

Then everyone, from Glory's friends and team, to random RainWings, shouted, "Long Live Queen Glory!"

"Oh, I can't believe I finally get to have a real Queen!" Kinkajou said happily, he scales growing a mix of golden rod and hot pink. "As long as I have lived, I have never had a real Queen." She hugged Tamarin, who was just as happy as Kinkajou was to have an actual Queen ruling the tribe for the first time in her life. Neither of them had even been born yet the last time Queen Grandeur had total control over the throne.

Tsunami choked out quickly. "Long live queen Glory!"

"I'm afraid I didn't hear you."

"Come on, I said it!"

"But I didn't hear you," Glory pressed.

"Alright, alright." Tsunami cleared her throat. "LONG LIVE QUEEN GLORY!" she bellowed. "Happy?"

"Very." Glory crossed her arms smugly.

Deathbringer sat up. "Can I at least be called King Deathbringer?" he asked cautiously, half expecting Glory to knock him down again.

"Somebody has to be," Glory said. "But…I don't think I'd want it to be anyone other than you."

"Wait. Are you saying you _do_ love me?"

"Don't get excited."

"She loves me!" Deathbringer shouted.

"'King Deathbringer'," Clay laughed. "That should instill fear in the hearts of their enemies."

"Or have them laughing at him," Glory said. "I'd prefer your idea, but 'King Deathbringer' sounds too cheesy for my taste."

"I think it sounds scary," Deathbringer interjected.

"Can't be any scarier than the idea of me having to sleep with you now," she joked. "Just don't 'rock my hammock' when I'm trying to sleep," she added slyly.

"But I already have the perfect names for our children!" Deathbringer said quickly. "Firefly, Anaconda, and Shadowrain."

"Oh, of course you already do," Glory groaned. "What, did you have a vision of the future?"

"I wasn't hatched in the light of two full moons, so no," Deathbringer admitted. "Moonwatcher did."

He pointed to a female NightWing dragonet who hadn't been by Kinkajou's side when Glory left. She had one silver scale under each eye, and based on the way she was rubbing her forehead with her talons, seemed to be suffering from a horrible migraine.

"Does she have a headache right now?" Glory whispered to Deathbringer.

"Kinkajou says Moonwatcher told her that she was born under two full moons. If a NightWing is born under two full moons, they hatch with the ability to read minds, and since her mother never taught her how to control whose thoughts she hears, Moonwatcher has to suffer with hearing _everybody's_ thoughts all the time."

"I'd have migraines too if I heard everyone's thoughts all the time," Glory muttered. "She must feel like she's in Hell all the time. How does she sleep at night?"

"That's the thing," Deathbringer sighed. "I've been told, she doesn't, more often than not."

"I'll go talk to her," Glory said, then without waiting for Deathbringer's opinion, she approached the groaning NightWing dragonet. "Moonwatcher?"

"Q-Queen Glory?" Moonwatcher said, her voice full of pain. "I'm sorry. I can't talk with this horrible migraine. It never goes away."

"Deathbringer told me everything. You are a mindreader with no control over whose thoughts you hear, and you are hearing everybody's right now. Your mother never taught you how to control whose thoughts you hear."

"Yes…" she groaned.

"Who is your mother?" Glory asked. "I can find her and demand she teaches you how to have control over your ability."

Moonwatcher rubbed her forehead intensely for a moment before answering. "Her name…is Secretkeeper. But I…wish she could."

 _I didn't just make a huge mistake already, did I? What if her mother is dead and I just reminded her?_ Glory felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and her scales nearly became white at the thought.

"Don't…worry, Your Majesty." Glory didn't panic. She knew Moonwatcher had heard her thoughts. "She's still alive…last I knew. Just…nobody has seen her for weeks. She and…at least a dozen RainWings just disappeared. My visions say it was…Scarlet, at least a dozen other SkyWings, and Burn who took them. But Queen Magnificent didn't believe me. They could all be dead by now…if Scarlet took them to her arena."

"I will get your mother and all of them back." Glory gently placed a talon on Moonwatcher's shoulder. "I won't have all the RainWings trained in time for it, but I will take the battle right to Scarlet's front door. I just need to send a letter to Queen Glacier of the IceWings asking for assistance. I know we cannot do this ourselves. That is the only way will we rescue your mother and make sure Scarlet dies."

"Your Majesty," Grandeur interrupted. "I hate to interrupt, but many dragons have tried killing Scarlet over the past three decades, and none have been successful."

"But have any of them ever been the girlfriend of an expert assassin?" Glory questioned. She knew she'd regret saying she was Deathbringer's girlfriend when he was right behind her, but she didn't have much choice, and she hoped he realized that. "And I nearly killed Scarlet once, I can finish the job this time." She took note of the confused looks on everyone's faces (other than her earliest friends, for they had been there when Glory attacked Scarlet). "Some of you probably know how Scarlet had her face melted by a RainWing's venom. _I_ am that RainWing. Scarlet wants me dead, I know that, but she will not ever get the chance. I will finish what I started one day, and be the one who finally kills her. Her tyranny will end when that happens, even if it means the Sky Kingdom has no queens, because Kestrel killed Scarlet's last daughter, Tourmaline. Scarlet already killed all her sisters and the rest of her daughters, so she has no heirs to the throne left if something ever happens to her."

"It would be The MudWing Tragedy all over again," Grandeur said darkly. "I will never forget that. When I was no older than you are now, Glory, the MudWing Queen at the time died without any heirs, and the Kingdom was in chaos for decades." She paused. "Queen Moorhen isn't descended from the ancient MudWing Queens. Her great grandmother had stepped up to the throne twenty years into the chaos that had followed the previous queen's death."

"It will be just what they deserve," Glory spot. "Or what they need after thirty years of being ruled by a tyrant. Let them rebuild their monarchy from the ground up just like the MudWings had to. If Scarlet doesn't go down in history as the worst tyrant in the history of Pyrrhia, I'll eat my talons." She paused. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must head to my pavilion and begin writing my letter to Queen Glacier."

"Please let me come with you!" Kinkajou piped up.

"Thanks for the offer, but I need silence to write this letter. I cannot have anyone come with me. That goes for you too, Deathbringer. Stay _out_ of my pavilion while I am writing."

* * *

Queen Glory sat down at the desk in her pavilion, formerly the now Ex-Queen Magnificent's. She didn't like the layout of the pavilion's interior and would surely deal with that, but not right now. There were more urgent issues to deal with than a tacky decor.

She dipped the end of the feather in the ink, thinking about how it was amazing the RainWings even still had a writing system, and began writing on the piece of yucca plant parchment she'd found in one of the desk drawers.

When she was finished writing, Glory began reading her letter out loud to ensure there were no errors or else she'd have to write it all over again after proofreading her mistakes. But it was flawless, thankfully. She was thankful that Webs had at least taught her and her friends how to write letters and other documents when they all lived under Claws of the Clouds Mountain.

 _20 April 5012 A.S._

 _Queen Glacier_

 _The Royal IceWing Palace_

 _The Ice Kingdom_

 _Northwestern Pyrrhia_

 _Dear Queen Glacier:_

 _It has come to my attention from a vision the twice-moonborn NightWing known as Moonwatcher had recently, that dragons are being taken from the Rainforest Kingdom by Queen Scarlet of the RainWings and Princess Burn of the SandWings. I, Queen Glory, do not have time to train the RainWings to fight against Scarlet and Burn's forces, and you are the only Queen I can_ _write_ _to who would not warn Scarlet of my intentions. The MudWings are part of Scarlet's alliance, and Blaze's SandWings fighting under your command are the only SandWings I know I can trust. The rest of Pyrrhia's SandWings are either on Princess Burn or Princess Blister's side, and I cannot risk communicating with any others_ _except those under Blaze's alliance._

 _We do not know if these possible prisoners are still alive or if they have all died in Queen Scarlet's arena, but they are all_ _ **my**_ _subjects, and I will not sit by and do nothing if there is still a chance. However, training the rest of my new subjects in time to lead a rescue mission will be next to impossible. The RainWings have not fought in over nearly half a century. My army, as it is presently, will not stand a chance against Scarlet and Burn's own soldiers. It is only eight strong, including myself; there are other dragons in my tribe whom I trust, but I would never take any of the RainWings into a battle in the middle of Scarlet's land. The seven dragons I_ _am most trusting with_ _are Clay of the MudWings, Princess Tsunami and Riptide of the SeaWings, Sunny of the_ _Sand_ _Wings, Starflight and Deathbringer of the NightWings, and Peril of the SkyWings._ _That is why they are in short, my only army._

 _Please consider my urgent request and_ _show_ _this letter to Princess Blaze as well. I need as much support in this rescue mission as you and Blaze can supply me. The RainWings do not have any treasure, but when the war is over, I will find some other way to repay the debt I will surely owe you. We_ _can_ _not rescue my subjects, and then defeat Scarlet and Burn without your assistance. I_ _shall_ _not stand by and let them all die in Scarlet's arena, nor can I do this myself._

 _Yours truly,_

 _Queen Glory,_

 _the new Queen of the RainWings_

 _Return address:_

 _Queen Glory's Royal Pavilion_

 _The Rainforest Kingdom_

 _Southeastern Pyrrhia_


	31. Chapter 30: A New Alliance is Born

**Chapter 30:  
A New Alliance is Born**

"A letter, your Majesty," a female IceWing said to Queen Glacier.

"Who is it from?" she questioned. "I don't get very many letters anymore. If it's another death threat from Blister, go ahead and just shred it. I won't even read it."

Queen Glacier still had all her scars, the physical and mental ones, from the most recent attempt on her life, but she had returned to her throne. She was now being guarded by twice as many first circle IceWings as before. They weren't going to take another chance, especially not while the war was ongoing.

"It is from the RainWings," the messenger answered. "Somebody called Queen Glory."

"I don't recall the RainWing Queen being someone called Glory," Glacier said with interest. "It was Queen Grandeur last I'd heard."

"They must have finally gotten a new Queen," said Prince Narwhal. "Hopefully she is somebody that can make them less useless."

"Silence," she hissed at her brother, as she sliced open the envelope with her claw and excavated the letter. Glacier immediately glared at the messenger. "This letter is dated to over a week ago. Why didn't you make sure this was delivered to me earlier?"

"I-I thought it would be useless," the messenger stammered. "It's j-just from the RainWings."

"This is war. You were supposed to deliver _all_ mail to me immediately. I do not care if you think it is useless. That is for me to decide." She paused. "You are hereby relieved of your duty as my messenger. Please hand over your backpack and leave my palace to begin your search for a new job somewhere else. I am very disappointed in you. You have served me well until now."

"I am sorry, Your Majesty," she said, handing her bag over to Prince Winter without any disagreement. "If you ever need me to be of service again, I will come flying immediately."

"I will, consider it," Glacier sighed. "You had been the best. But I cannot afford any mistakes to be made during war. I may reinstate you when this war is over. But until then, you are relieved of your duty."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she said, and then left the throne room without issue.

Glacier turned her attention back to the letter, which she began reading aloud:

" _Dear Queen Glacier:_

 _It has come to my attention from a vision the twice-moonborn NightWing known as Moonwatcher had recently, that dragons are being taken from the Rainforest Kingdom by Queen Scarlet of the RainWings and Princess Burn of the SandWings. I, Queen Glory, do not have time to train the RainWings to fight against Scarlet and Burn's forces, and you are the only Queen I can_ _write_ _to who would not warn Scarlet of my intentions. The MudWings are part of Scarlet's alliance, and Blaze's SandWings fighting under your command are the only SandWings I know I can trust. The rest of Pyrrhia's SandWings are either on Princess Burn or Princess Blister's side, and I cannot risk communicating with any others_ _except those under Blaze's alliance._

 _We do not know if these possible prisoners are still alive or if they have all died in Queen Scarlet's arena, but they are all_ _ **my**_ _subjects, and I will not sit by and do nothing if there is still a chance. However, training the rest of my new subjects in time to lead a rescue mission will be next to impossible. The RainWings have not fought in over nearly half a century. My army, as it is presently, will not stand a chance against Scarlet and Burn's own soldiers. It is only eight strong, including myself; there are other dragons in my tribe whom I trust, but I would never take any of the RainWings into a battle in the middle of Scarlet's land. The seven dragons I_ _am most trusting with_ _are Clay of the MudWings, Princess Tsunami and Riptide of the SeaWings, Sunny of the_ _Sand_ _Wings, Starflight and Deathbringer of the NightWings, and Peril of the SkyWings._ _That is why they are in short, my only army._

 _Please consider my urgent request and_ _show_ _this letter to Princess Blaze as well. I need as much support in this rescue mission as you and Blaze can supply me. The RainWings do not have any treasure, but when the war is over, I will find some other way to repay the debt I will surely owe you. We_ _can_ _not rescue my subjects, and then defeat Scarlet and Burn without your assistance. I_ _shall_ _not stand by and let them all die in Scarlet's arena, nor can I do this myself._

 _Yours truly,_

 _Queen Glory,_

 _the new Queen of the RainWings."_

She paused for a moment.

"Hmm?" The letter left Glacier in complete thought.

"I cannot believe it!" Prince Winter gasped. "It really sounds like the RainWings found themselves a good Queen. But can she erase the notion that RainWings are indeed useless?"

"We'll see," Glacier answered her nephew. "But now I must discuss this with Blaze. If Queen Glory really intends to take the war to Scarlet, we will have to help her. I'm sure Blaze can afford to spare some of her army for them. I will as well."

"Your Majesty, are you sure that is a good idea?" Narwhal asked. "What if Blister attacks us again? Our armies will not be at full strength."

"It is a risk we will have to take. Queen Glory cannot just lead seven other dragons to attack Scarlet. It will be a suicide mission. Some of them are the dragonets of destiny who already escaped Scarlet's arena once, and Queen Glory is the one who attacked Scarlet with her venom. Scarlet will not let them live to escape a second time. If Queen Glory can really lead our troops and defeat Queen Scarlet, then it will be a major victory for everyone on our side in the war. Especially if they can kill Queen Scarlet. I'm sure Blaze will agree. This is too big to pass off. Queen Scarlet must be eliminated, and if Glory's plan is successful, we will finally be one step closer to ending this war.

"Queen Scarlet's last daughter is dead and she murdered all her sisters and daughters decades ago," Queen Glacier continued. "If she dies, there will be no heir to succeed Queen Scarlet, and the Sky Kingdom will collapse into chaos. The SkyWings will drop right out of this war if Queen Scarlet dies, and so will Princess Burn. She will have lost all her support. I doubt they would follow Burn's leadership, either, if she tried to take Scarlet's throne."

* * *

Queen Glacier found Blaze in her new quarters within the royal palace; after the attempt on her life during the Battle of the Ice Kingdom, Glacier had arranged for Blaze to live within the royal palace with IceWing guards watching over her and the still-imprisoned Quicksand at all hours of the day. Unofficially, Cobra and several of her guards also kept watch over Blaze, keeping their eyes peeled for any suspicious behavior among the SandWings.

"Blaze, please read this letter," the IceWing Queen instructed her upon entering her room after knocking. "It is from the new Queen of the RainWings, and it is urgent that you read it as well."

Blaze had been resting on her bed with two fur coats laid over her body just to keep warm. It was as nearly cold as the dungeon in here and Blaze hated that about having to live in the Royal IceWing Palace, but she knew it was for her own good. The only thing she truly wished was different though, was she wanted Quicksand out of the dungeon and by her side. She'd forgiven him for what happened to Onyx, especially after they'd learned his son Six-Claws had been scheduled for execution. Quicksand had been rather silent ever since his son's death; Blaze believed he had fallen into depression.

She read the letter after Glacier handed it over to her, and was left speechless afterwards.

"This was really written by a RainWing?" Blaze gasped. "Mother always said RainWings were 'useless creatures'."

"Not all of them, it seems," said Glacier. "This RainWing is one of the Dragonets of Destiny, so she was not raised by any RainWings. She's as much a regular dragon as the rest of the Dragonets of Destiny. That is all beside the point, however. I need you to come with me to my chamber so we can all discuss Queen Glory's request for you and I to send some of our troops to the Rainforest Kingdom, so she can bring the war to Queen Scarlet before she kills anyone else."

* * *

Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, and Starflight quietly entered Queen Glory's Pavilion. They were not surprised to see Deathbringer "standing guard" by her desk as she busily wrote what appeared to be yet another letter. Had Queen Glacier already responded to her first letter?

"You have visitors," Deathbringer whispered to Glory.

Glory turned from her desk.

"Is there any news from Queen Glacier yet?" Tsunami asked.

"Not yet."

"What have you been working on, then?" Starflight asked softly.

"Just an…idea," Glory answered him sheepishly. "I was thinking that maybe after this war ends, we should…open up a school for dragons from all the tribes. Deathbringer and I already have the perfect location in mind. Jade Mountain." She picked up the piece of scroll from her desk. "Here. I already have a letter written that we would hand out to all the students."

Clay took it from her and they looked it over together.

 **WELCOME TO**

 **THE JADE MOUNTAIN**

 **ACADEMY!**

 _At this school, you will be learning side by side with dragons from all the other tribes, so we wanted to give you some basic information that may be useful as you get to know one another._

 _You have been assigned to a winglet with six other dragons; the winglet groups are listed on the following page._

 _Thank you for being a part of this school. You are the hope of Pyrrhia's future. You are the dragons who can bring lasting peace to this world._

 **WE WISH YOU ALL THE POWER**

 **OF WINGS OF FIRE!**

"But, how will we start up an entire school?" Tsunami asked when they were finished reading over Glory's letter. "We don't even have any supplies to run a school."

"I have it all figured out," Glory said. "The other Queens would help with that. I am sure they can pool the supplies needed to start a school, and give us the dragonets to teach as well."

"I know my mother would have more than enough writing supplies," Tsunami muttered. "You don't have to worry about that."

"Hey, hey!" Deathbringer suddenly shouted. "Her Majesty is having a meeting!"

Glory and her friends turned to see him blocking the path of a female RainWing not much older than Glory.

"B-But…it is a letter from Queen Glacier of the IceWings!" she stammered. "An IceWing just dropped it off and asked me to make sure Queen Glory gets it right away."

"Let her in, Deathbringer," Glory demanded. The NightWing stepped aside and the little RainWing hurried past him as if she expected them to suddenly change their minds. "Thank you," she said as she took the letter. "You would make a good messenger. I think you've just earned yourself a job."

The RainWing's scales became bright with joy. "Oh, a job!" she exclaimed. "I've never had one before. I must go tell my friends!" And then she was gone, which was fine with Glory. She needed to read this letter from Queen Glacier in silence anyway. She ripped open the envelope, unfolded the letter, and began reading.  
" _Dear Queen Glory,_

 _I read your urgent letter as soon as it arrived,_ _and I apologise for not replying sooner._ _Blaze, my royal council, and I just finished discussing your m_ _a_ _tter moments before I sat down to write this letter. We came to the decision that we_ _shall_ _help you in your plans to defeat Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings, however with one small condition that I am sure you will be able to honor when the war is over. I want nothing in return but for you to end this war with the soldiers Blaze and I will provide for you—roughly two dozen IceWings and twenty SandWings—and make sure Blaze becomes the next Queen of the SandWings. Blaze, on the other talon, wants one thing from you: A supply of herbs and other plants from your Kingdom. She has heard that the Rainforest Kingdom is full of plants that can heal injuries, but she does not want to start conflict over it by barging in and stealing it from your tribe._

 _The forty-four dragons Blaze and I talonpicked personally to join you in your efforts, Queen Glory, should arrive the same day as this letter. I gave their leaders, a SandWing called Cobra and_ _m_ _y brother Prince Narwhal, a map with your kingdom marked on it so they would not get lost, as they have never been to the Rainforest Kingdom before. Blaze and I also instructed every one of these dragons to follow your commands as if you are their Queen. If any of them prove to be disobedient, make sure I hear about it, and I will issue the appropriate punishment when they return to my Royal Palace._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Queen Glacier,_

 _of the IceWings"_

She sat the letter down on her desk. "Everything is going perfectly according to my plan," Glory said.

Sunny raised a talon and Glory nodded her approval. "But, if you and Deathbringer are going to lead Glacier and Blaze's soldiers into attacking Scarlet's palace, who will lead the RainWings while you are both gone?"

"Grandeur and I talked that over. She will fill in for me while I am away. I wouldn't have it any other way, either. She has been a good Queen in the past, and she will be still while I am away. I'm not going to just sit around on my throne and hope for good news when I can lead Glacier and Blaze's soldiers to victory myself. I will make all the difference."

As if she had been created by thin air itself, Kinkajou suddenly crash landed into Glory's Royal Pavilion.

"Kinkajou!" Glory barked. "What is the meaning of this? You knew I was in a meeting!"

"T-This is important!" the little RainWing stammered. Everyone now realized how her scales were as white as snow. "Moonwatcher just had a vision…you need to come and hear it from her!"

* * *

Queen Glory, Deathbringer, and her friends followed Kinkajou to the lake, where they found Moonwatcher shaking horribly, with some RainWings trying to calm her down.

"She just had the most frightening vision ever!" a male RainWing said. His scales were as white as snow, just as Kinkajou's had been. "It has to do with you, Your Majesty."

Glory approached Moonwatcher slowly. She placed a talon on the NightWing's shoulder.

"Tell me what you saw," she whispered softly.

"I-It was horrible!" Moonwatcher sobbed. Then she began to describe her vision vividly, in a way that made everyone around her feel as if they had the vision themselves.

 _Scarlet was flying higher up than any of them. She had a snarl on her face and her teeth were dripping with blood—another dragon's blood!—and smoke was rising from her nostrils._

 _She was carrying the severed head of a female RainWing in her front talons; the left side of the dead dragon's face had been completely shredded beyond recognition and was raining blood down on her allies. Her eyes were closed tight, but everyone doubted it was Scarlet who did that; she'd never have that kind of respect for any dragon she murdered._

 _Regardless of how badly her face had been shredded, her allies knew who she was; no other RainWing they'd met so far had the same turquoise-green scales. Her decapitated body lay on the battlefield below, among countless other dead and dying dragons._

" _No!" Sunny cried with exasperation._

" _GLORY!" screamed Deathbringer._

" _The taste of_ _he_ _r blood was divine, thrilling!" Scarlet began shouting so all of Glory's loved ones, especially her husband Deathbringer, could hear. "Would I do it again? YES! Oh, she's gory Glory, indeed!" The Sky Queen then began singing "The Dragonets Are Coming" in her shrill, rasping voice, a song they all knew very well but with her own take on its lyrics that would send chills down all their spines and would give them nightmares for years to come:_

" _Oh, it's true, the dragonets are dying!_

 _They're not saving the day!_

 _They're coming to rest, for they know how to die!_

 _Oh, the dragonets are dying!_

 _HOORAY!"_

"Holy blood red moons!" Deathbringer exclaimed when Moonwatcher was finished telling them what she saw. "Alright, it is my turn to make the decisions. Glory, you are not going on this campaign to Scarlet's palace. It is out of the question. You will die if you do! Moonwatcher's vision can't be wrong!"

Glory struck him across the head with her tail. She was shaken by this vision, but was trying her hardest not to show it. "Shut up," she snarled. "I decide when I die. Moonwatcher's vision will stay just that. It will not come true. If anyone gets decapitated, it will be Scarlet when this battle is over. I promise you that. She will not live another day."

Then Glory thought, _But what if Moonwatcher's vision is right and I do die? Then what will become of the RainWings? They will have lost their best Queen, Moonwatcher will never see her mother again—if she's even still alive now—and if they are still alive as well, the RainWings they captured will die horribly. I can't afford to die. The entire plan will fall apart. But…I must lead them. What kind of Queen would I be if I didn't lead my army just because of a vision that I may die? I have no choice. I have to do this for them, and for those prisoners. I can't sit by and do nothing. The war is coming to you, Scarlet, one way or another._


	32. Chapter 31: The Lost Ones

**Chapter 31:  
The Lost Ones**

Queen Glory was now alone in her Royal Pavilion, except for Deathbringer of course. She had ordered everyone to leave moments after they returned from hearing about Moonwatcher's rather frightening vision. While Glory hadn't said anything, she was scared to death about what would happen when she led Glacier and Blaze's soldiers to the SkyWing Kingdom. More than worrying about her own fate, she had another reason to fear death.

The RainWing Queen looked regretfully down at her belly, which she had a talon placed gently over. She didn't hate that she'd not even known Deathbringer for a month; rather, Glory hated herself for making such a foolish decision in the middle of the war that she hadn't even given any thought prior to Moonwatcher's vision. If she died like in Moonwatcher's vision, then so would the new life growing in her womb. Glory never would have imagined pregnancy happened so quickly among RainWings, but it gave her all the more reason to fear taking the war to Scarlet now. Worse yet, Deathbringer didn't even know he would be a dad, and Glory wasn't sure how to tell him.

The only thing Glory was sure about was that in a year after she laid the eggs, which wouldn't happen for another month according to Grandeur when Glory had nonchalantly asked her how long a mother dragon would carry eggs. She hadn't told Grandeur she was asking for herself, so Glory could only hope Grandeur didn't assume she was gravid. Then again, maybe Grandeur didn't seem like the sort of dragon who would give away someone's secrets, especially not when that someone was her Queen.

 _But how I am going to tell Deathbringer?_ she thought. _He has every right to know if he is going to be a father, but I'm not sure how to break this news to him._ She paused her thoughts for a moment. Sure, Deathbringer obviously knew they'd made love three nights ago, but he didn't know that Glory was pregnant from that encounter yet. _I really chose the worst time to sleep with him. We're in the middle of a war, and I'm about to lead myself into a battle that could get me—and my unborn dragonets—killed. Then everyone would think I was a selfish Queen, caring more about this war than my future children. I don't even know what to do anymore. Firefly, Anaconda, and Shadowrain will only remain Deathbringer's idea if I die now. Maybe I shouldn't go lead Glacier and Blaze's soldiers into this battle, but then who would? A Queen always leads her soldiers into battle. What will they do if I cannot because I decided to get laid three nights ago and now I'm too afraid to fight, just to keep my future eggs safe?_

"Are you alright?" Deathbringer unexpectedly asked. "You've been silent all morning. That isn't like you."

"I've just been thinking," Glory whispered. "I've got a lot on my mind."

"You're still worried about Moon's vision?" he asked softly.

"It's more than that." _Great,_ she thought. _Now I_ have _to tell him he's gonna be a dad. There's no avoiding that truth now. But I can't just wait a month until I've laid my eggs to get involved in a siege that is my idea to begin with. I'll just need to be careful._ "Deathbringer…" she began in a whisper. "…I think—I know I'm…" _Here we go,_ she thought. "…pregnant."

Glory thought Deathbringer was going to topple over like a tree in a windstorm. Words couldn't describe the shocked look on his face. She sensed he didn't even know what to say. It felt like an eternity passed before he said anything.

"I-I'm going to be…a father?" Deathbringer choked out. _But three moons, why now? I'm such an idiot for sleeping with Glory three nights ago. I knew she wanted to lead Glacier and Blaze's troops into the battle against Scarlet but I did it anyway, and now she's,_ _gonna be_ _carrying eggs_ _soon_ _, and we still have to make sure Moonwatcher's vision of her death doesn't come true. Now more than ever, now that she is carrying our future. But how will she stay safe for at least a month until she can lay the eggs if she is going to be leading attacks on Scarlet's palace? Maybe somebody else should lead them, just for Glory's safety. She won't have to fear dying at Scarlet's talons if she doesn't ever set foot in the Sky Kingdom. But then, would anyone respect her as a Queen if she did that?_ "You have to tell everyone you can't lead the IceWings and SandWings to Scarlet's palace, that you have to keep our eggs safe until you lay them, then maybe you can lead them. I would guard the eggs with my life while you are away. I wouldn't even let your friends near them unless you say I can."

"That is very noble of you," Glory sighed, "but I must lead Glacier and Blaze's troops. What kind of Queen would I be if I let pregnancy stop me from going through with a promise?"

"One that cares about her family as much as her tribe! Glacier and Blaze, and everyone else with a heart on Pyrrhia, would understand that you have to keep your heirs safe. No mother-to-be should be forced to fight before her eggs are laid." He soon began to blame himself for what happened only a few nights ago, and hung his head in shame. "It is my fault for seducing you. We should not have made love three nights ago." He paused momentarily. "I'll never forgive myself. I have always been reckless and that is what got my mother killed. Three moons, I don't want anything to happen to you or our future children. I'd hate myself for the rest of my life."

"I am as much to blame as you are, Deathbringer. I could've said 'no'. I could've said 'after this war is over, we can start trying for a family'. But I couldn't resist relieving all my stress," Glory admitted without issue, but in a low voice.

"What will you do?"

"I will at least lead the first battle against Scarlet. Only then will I send a letter back to Queen Glacier explaining this situation to her." She paused. "Now, you and I have some planning to do before the reinforcements arrive. We need to show them I am a competent Queen, and have a plan to attack the SkyWings ready by the time they get here."

Glory took out a large sheet of papyrus from a stand and slapped it down on her table. She began sketching out her battle plan with the stick of charcoal Deathbringer always carried with him in the pouch around his neck. The moons would be high in the sky by the time Glory and Deathbringer have the perfect plan mapped out, just as their reinforcements would be arriving from the Ice Kingdom.

* * *

Glory flew down from her Royal Pavilion ten minutes after the promised reinforcements arrived. Deathbringer had convinced her to wear some sort of cloak to make her seem more "queenly".

They landed before the female SandWing and male IceWing standing in front of the other forty-two dragons, presuming Queen Glacier and Blaze had put these two in charge of this small army. They all seemed ready to fight for Queen Glory.

"I presume you are Queen Glory?" the IceWing asked.

"In the flesh," Glory answered. "You are?"

"Prince Narwhal of the IceWings. I am the eldest brother of Queen Glacier and the leader of her council."

"Cobra of the SandWings. Blaze chose me specifically to make up half this small army's leadership as I have been her most loyal assassin and soldier for the entire war."

"You are sure they will all follow any command Deathbringer or I give them?" Glory questioned. She raised her voice so everyone could hear her. "We will not tolerate insubordination. They must all follow my every command and my entire battle plan at all times. If not, you will die, and I will not grieve for any of you if you died not following my orders or planning. I did not spend more than half the day mapping out my battle plan to grieve for dragons who get their throats slashed just because they can't follow orders."

"They will follow your every command, Your Majesty," said Cobra. "I promise you that. Queen Glacier, Blaze, Narwhal, and I all drilled it into their minds that they _will_ act as if you are our Queen until this conflict with Scarlet is over. We only chose the best soldiers we could afford to bring with us—of course, we couldn't bring all of our best soldiers with us, but some of these dragons have two decades of experience. They have been fighting in this war from the very start; for others, this is the second war they have fought in, and even the third war for others." She flicked her tail at a SandWing much older than the others, with too many scars to count, wearing a black cloak over his shoulders, a golden amulet engraved with a vulture hanging around his neck, and a tattoo of a vulture on his neck. "This is my father, Vulture."

 _That's rather fitting,_ Glory thought. _He seems to have a thing about them. But he must be at least fifty if he has fought in three wars. I don't even know the last time there was a war before the War of SandWing Succession. We were taken by Scarlet before we could study that far back in history with Webs._

"He has fought for Blaze since before I was born. This is the third war he has fought. Even if I cannot keep these troops under control, my father will. They have never questioned his command on or off the battlefield. If he says they must follow your and Deathbringer's commands, then damn it, they will." She turned to face the crowd. "ANYONE THAT DOES NOT WILL FREEZE, OR STARVE, TO DEATH IN QUEEN GLACIER'S DUNGEON!" she roared at them. "AM I CLEAR?"

"Yes!" they all answered immediately. "All hail Queen Glory!" Then they seemed to think about how it'd only be temporarily, that they would revert back to serving only Queen Glacier or Blaze, but Cobra and Vulture either didn't notice it on their faces or they didn't care. They would be loyal to Queen Glory for this battle and that's all they cared about.

"We leave in the morning!" Glory suddenly declared. "Everyone get as much sleep as you can. You will need it."

"I will sleep when I'm dead," Vulture answered. "Cobra and I will stay up all night to make sure nobody makes an attempt on your life. It will be easy. I once went five days without sleep to win a war for Queen Oasis when she was still alive."

* * *

Vulture glared across the plain to Queen Scarlet's Royal Palace, then he turned around to the small army crouched behind Queen Glory.

"Are you all ready to knock on death's door?" he bellowed at the rest of the SandWing and IceWing soldiers. "Because that is what we will all be doing by taking this war straight to Scarlet!"

Even though Glory, Deathbringer, and all the soldiers nodded in response to this, most of them were thinking about how they were not ready to "knock on death's door". Especially not Glory, who still had not told anyone besides Deathbringer that she was pregnant; not even Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, and Starflight knew yet. Moonwatcher had probably unwillingly found out through involuntarily reading Glory's mind, but she trusted the NightWing dragonet would keep it to herself.

"Take out the guards first," Vulture reminded them. "Then Scarlet won't stand a chance. Or, since some of you are IceWings, her chances won't be much better than a snowflake's chance in Hell."

"I still say we should have let Peril come with us," Glory spoke up. "Nobody can touch her. She could fight Scarlet and not have to fear death."

"And what if Scarlet convinced her to switch back to her side?" Vulture snarled. "I know you trust her, but I don't. Not when it comes to Scarlet at least. You seem to be forgetting how Scarlet raised Peril. Would you really trust her to kill the only parent figure she ever had in her life? That would be like asking my grandson to kill Thorn if she became evil suddenly."

Sure enough, Vulture's grandson Qibli's face became aghast at the thought of killing Thorn, who was crouched down beside him. After his father was killed by Blister, Thorn had watched over Qibli while Cobra was away fighting for Queen Glacier and Blaze. While Qibli loved Cobra dearly, he always said Thorn was like a second mother to him.

Thorn always said Qibli was like the child she'd never had ever since her only egg was taken by the Talons of Peace about eight years ago. Worse yet, her animus NightWing husband just disappeared from the face of the planet one day to spare her from watching his soul be corrupted from overuse of his magic. Stonemover didn't even say goodbye to Thorn before he left, and he was probably dead now, so she'd moved on with her life. What she had _not_ moved on from, however, was her missing egg, which she'd hidden in the sand dunes not far from The Scorpion Den. She had spent the past eight years trying to find her lost egg, especially after she'd heard rumors that Queen Scarlet had captured the dragonets of destiny and murdered their guardians. That is, until she had been brought right to her long-lost daughter, the SandWing-NightWing hybrid among the Dragonets of Destiny known as Sunny. Sunny and Thorn only wished they had been introduced to each other under better circumstances, but they would take time to get to know each other properly when the war was ended and peace returned to Pyrrhia.

"Peril would at least tell us where Scarlet keeps her prisoners," Deathbringer interrupted. "We don't know where Scarlet's dungeon is."

" _You_ don't," Glory barked, "but I do. I was kept there briefly when I was Scarlet's prisoner before she moved me to her throne room. She keeps her most prized or dangerous prisoners chained up near her throne where she can keep an eye on them constantly. The rest are either chained up on the pillars that surround Scarlet's arena, or they are locked in pits dug in the ground. We will look everywhere once Scarlet and her guards are dead."

"You sure are smart for someone so young," Vulture remarked. "You remind me so much of Cobra when she was your age. I wish more dragonets could be like you two. Then again, I suppose we cannot expect everyone to become a Queen or King before their tenth hatching day. You are an exceptional young dragon, Queen Glory, and I hope you rule until you are my age, at least."

"Thank you," she responded, hoping she didn't come across as sounding nervous. Glory wasn't used to getting compliments, especially not from someone she'd only known for less than a day. Her own friends didn't even compliment her this much on becoming a Queen at such a young age. Glory knew from the history scrolls Webs used to bring them that other than one SeaWing known as Pearl who lived about two thousand years ago, that she was the youngest dragon in Pyrrhia to become a Queen or King. Queen Pearl had only been five years old when she was more or less forced to ascend to the throne following The Royal SeaWing Massacre in which the previous Queen, Lagoon, and most of her heirs were murdered by Queen Lagoon's animus brother after he'd lost the rest of his soul from not using his magic for practical means. "Now," she said to all the soldiers. "We wait for the perfect moment to attack."

"Your Majesty," Thorn suddenly said. "I think there is going to be a problem. Look over to the arena."

 _Oh no,_ Glory thought.

Queen Scarlet's soldiers were herding a group of prisoners out from the dungeon into her arena. Glory's army wouldn't have cared if it wasn't for a glaring detail about these prisoners: With the exception of one female NightWing, they were all RainWings. These were the missing dragons whom Moonwatcher had told them about. None of the army liked where this was going. If they were to save them, they would have to act quickly, and do it soon.

They heard Queen Scarlet begin to address the SkyWing audience. Glory was the first to notice Burn sitting on a smaller throne next to Scarlet's. Scarlet wore an iron mask over her face to conceal her gruesome injuries that Glory had inflicted with her venom when she and her friends, plus Peril, had escaped this nightmarish place last month. Glory had hoped she would never have to see this living hell again, but she had no choice. She needed to rescue these RainWings and Secretkeeper before they died; something told Glory that was why Scarlet had brought them all out here like this. She worried at the back of her mind that maybe a spy had tipped Scarlet off about this planned rescue mission, and so Scarlet intended to execute the would be rescued before they could be, well, rescued.

"SkyWings!" Scarlet's voice carried as far as where Glory's small army laid in wait. "Queen Burn! You are about to witness a spectacle like nothing that has ever taken place in my arena before. These RainWings and Secretkeeper the NightWing were recently captured at the border of the Rainforest Kingdom and Mud Kingdom. I have never had RainWings die in my arena before. I thought it would be very thrilling!"

"You mean very _boring_ ," Burn corrected loudly, with a laugh. Scarlet gave her an unamused glare but she didn't pay much attention to her ally's anger. "RainWings can't fight and you know it. They'd probably keel over from fear the second you send a real dragon after them."

"Let me finish, my dear ally," the Sky Queen continued. Burn shot her a glare back that said 'I am not anyone's dear'. "These pathetic dragons will not be fighting another prisoner. That would not be original, or very thrilling either. They will be fighting—" She paused for a complete minute. "—me!"

"WHAT?!" Glory roared. "Change of plans. Rush in there now, have the SandWings kill Scarlet with their venom, and have the IceWings freeze anyone that interferes solid. We are going to save them now."

"Wait," Vulture whispered. "Wait until Scarlet has her back towards us. We must wait to attack when we have the best chance of catching her off guard. I know they are part of your tribe and you want them out of here as soon as possible, but rushing in there could be worse for them than waiting."

Glory snarled to herself as Queen Scarlet descended down into the arena. The RainWings became snow white with terror, and Secretkeeper seemed as if she wanted to as well.

"So," Scarlet said to the lone NightWing. "I hear you are the widow of Morrowseer. Isn't it a shame you couldn't be there when my ex-champion melted your husband's head? I bet it was very thrilling."

"He deserved it!" Secretkeeper barked. "Morrowseer was a monster. I had to hide from him that we even produced an egg together. Now that he's dead, I have one less reason to fear for Moonw—My daughter's safety." _Don't let Scarlet know her name!_ she scolded herself. _No matter what happens to me, she needs to be kept safe from Scarlet and Burn too!_ "I know now she'll never have to live on that hellish volcano like the rest of my tribe. If only I could save them, too," she added guiltily.

"If only someone could save _you_ ," Scarlet hissed. "Tell me, how does it feel knowing your daughter is about to become an orphan?"

"Go to Hell," Secretkeeper responded fearlessly. "Say hello to Morrowseer for me, if you get the chance." She knew she was going to die here, but she wasn't going to die seen as a coward by these SkyWings.

Scarlet responded by raking her claws through Secretkeeper's throat. Droplets of blood sprayed the RainWings behind her as she dropped forward on the sand. Secretkeeper saw Glory's army lurking just outside the arena, and wanted to tell them to take good care of Moonwatcher, but the words died on her tongue with her.

Glory whirled around in a fury to Vulture. "Is that why you wanted me to wait, so I have to live the rest of my life knowing I could have rescued Secretkeeper? Now Moonwatcher is an orphan! Is that what you wanted to happen, Vulture?"

"No. I did not foresee Scarlet killing Secretkeeper first. She hates RainWings the most for what you did to her, so we had expected her to kill one of them first."

"So you were fine with sacrificing _my_ own kind to save some of them?" Glory snapped. "We're doing this my way. Everyone!" She stood up. "Attack the arena! Take no prisoners! Especially not if they're name is Scarlet!"

Immediately, before Vulture could issue a different command, Glory's army rose into the night, and dove down the hill towards the arena.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Vermillion screamed. A second later, he dropped from his pillar when Thorn impaled him in the chest with her barbed tail. He was dead from to the SandWing's venom before he'd even hit the ground.

"SCARLET!" Glory roared.

"You! The one that did this—" She pointed at her face, even though it was concealed by an iron mask. "—to me has returned! Fantastic. You came to die with these pathetic RainWings."

"No. I came to rescue them all and finish what I started before. I should have made sure you would die the last time I was here. You will pay for what you did to Secretkeeper. Her daughter is an orphan now."

"Who cares? You should hate NightWings. It was Morrowseer that ruined your life."

"Secretkeeper was a good NightWing! So is her daughter! You will pay _dearly_ for what you did here."

"Rip these prisoners to shreds!" Scarlet bellowed. Immediately, seven SandWings, ones loyal to Burn, appeared from apparently nowhere, and went for the chained up RainWings. They began screaming.

"IceWings! Use your frostbreath!"

A moment later, the seven attacking SandWings were all dead, frozen solid in their attacking positions before they could rip the RainWings apart. That was when Scarlet had realized she was outnumbered _and_ surrounded, while Vulture, Thorn, and Cobra rushed to unchain the prisoners.

"Take off her mask," Glory ordered the nearest IceWing. It happened to be Prince Winter, the youngest nephew of Queen Glacier. His older brother Prince Hailstorm stood nearby in case Scarlet tried anything funny. "I wish to see the terror in Scarlet's eyes when I melt the rest of her face with my venom before I kill her. I want her to know the sort of fear her prisoners have felt in this arena for all these years." As soon as Winter had Scarlet's mask removed, he immediately flew a safe distance away from her. Nobody could really blame him for that; they wouldn't want to be that close to Scarlet either.

"Any last words?" Glory asked.

Scarlet whispered something nobody could understand.

"Speak up. The world deserves to know your dying words."

"Enchant these intruding dragons to become still like statues until I say otherwise," Scarlet whispered, "and enchant these RainWing prisoners to follow my every command unquestioned."

"What?!" Vulture gasped. "She's a—" Then he couldn't move nor speak. Whatever Scarlet had done, it afflicted all of the IceWings and SandWings. Glory and Deathbringer found themselves stiff as well.

 _She's an animus,_ Glory thought. _She must be the only animus SkyWing left. Damn it! Now who is going to save us?_

"You." Scarlet pointed at the first RainWing prisoner, a female no older than Kinkajou. "Rip open your stomach."

 _NO!_ Glory wanted to scream. It would have been too late anyway. Scarlet had enchanted all of her prisoners to follow her every command unquestioned. When the gruesome scene was over six minutes later she was dead, mauled by her own claws as per Scarlet's command. Glory wanted to throw up, but it seemed Scarlet's enchantment prevented that as well.

"Now for you two," she said to the next two of the six RainWings. Glory could only assume that the rest were already dead; Moonwatcher had said there were a dozen missing RainWings, but there was only half that many here, besides herself of course. "Rip out your eyeballs then stab yourself through the sockets with your claws until you are dead."

 _STOP THIS!_ Glory's mind screamed. But again, it was no use. In a short time, the two RainWings blinded themselves and then unwillingly took their own lives exactly how Scarlet had ordered them to.

"P-p-p-please spare us!" the last male RainWing pleaded.

Scarlet answered him with a swipe of her metal talons, from which blood now dripped, and Glory was too full of hatred by how Scarlet pushed away the headless carcass. She now realized that these iron talons were how Scarlet had ripped Secretkeeper's throat open so easily. She proceeded to stab the other two RainWings in their chests with her iron talons. Glory wished she could look away from the gruesome result of Scarlet removing them, but she was still enchanted to remain like a statue.

"Take this as a warning, Queen Glory," Scarlet growled as she retrieved her mask. "If any of you ever try to invade my kingdom again, you will end up just like all these prisoners did tonight. I can enchant any of you to do my bidding if I wish. That's the advantage of being the last descendant of the ancient animus SkyWings. I kept it a secret until I was the Queen of the SkyWings as I would have been executed immediately otherwise. But just to make sure you are convinced…"

 _DON'T!_ Glory thought. _No!_

A SandWing dropped dead immediately. At first, she couldn't tell who it was for Scarlet had sliced across their face with her iron talons, which were probably animus-touched now that Glory thought about it, but then she realized which SandWing was no longer upright.

 _Sirocco. That's another of Cobra's children._ She looked over to Vulture, Cobra, Qibli, and Rattlesnake, and immediately sensed a pent up anger rising in them over Sirocco's death.

Scarlet snapped her fingers and the enchanted dragons all felt feeling return to their bodies. Many of them dropped to the ground with surprise, but immediately stood up again.

"Go on, the rest of you," Scarlet hissed. "Leave my kingdom. You will all die just like this SandWing here if you ever return, and so will everyone you all care about when I hunt them down. That is a promise."

 _This is only the beginning, Scarlet,_ Glory thought with hate brewing in her heart as her army retreated. _We will be_ _b_ _ack, and next time, you_ will _die. That is my promise to_ you _. I will avenge the dragons you murdered her_ _e_ _._

* * *

 **Author's note:** Yeah, even though my story is non canon, this is my theory as to why Scarlet is evil. She is an animus that lost her soul a long time ago.


	33. Chapter 32: The Battle of Ice and Night

**Chapter 32:  
The Battle of Ice and Night**

"Another letter from the Rainforest Kingdom, Your Majesty," the new messenger said to Queen Glacier.

"Is it from Queen Glory?" asked Queen Glacier.

"It is not. It is from King Deathbringer."

"Her husband? He has never written to us before." Glacier glanced at the letter. The envelope was marked "URGENT", so she tore it open immediately, tossed the envelope aside, and unfolded the letter. She began reading it aloud so her entire council would know what it said.

" _Dear Queen Glacier,_

 _Queen Glory, my wife, lead the attack against Scarlet with the troops you and Blaze sent to us. It was a total failure. All the RainWing prisoners are dead, and so is Moonwatcher's mother, Secretkeeper. A NightWing. Scarlet had taken her prisoner as well. Moonwatcher is devastated, of course; she is an orphan now. But there is worse news; much worse. We discovered that Queen Scarlet is an animus…when she enchanted every one of us to be as still as statues, before she enchanted some of the RainWing prisoners to follow her every command. She commanded two of them to disembowel themselves in front of us all_ —" _Just like in the legend of Darkstalker,_ she thought, pausing her reading there for a moment. _Darkstalker enchanted his own father, Prince Arctic of the IceWings, to disembowel himself in front of the entire NightWing tribe. Does Scarlet know about this legend, and that is why she did it? To remind my soldiers of the horrors Darkstalker made the ancient NightWings and some IceWing spies experience?_ A part of Glacier found it hard to believe Scarlet would know of IceWing and NightWing history, but nobody could know for sure. "— _before she killed the rest with her animus touched iron talons. The rest of the RainWing prisoners had been killed before we arrived. She also killed Sirocco, one of the sons of Blaze's assassin, Cobra, before lifting the enchantment off us, and ordering us to leave before she changed her mind and killed us all as well._

 _On a final, unrelated note. Princess Greatness of the NightWings has arrived, claiming she has abandoned her tribe, thrown away her title of 'princess', and never wants to be involved with the NightWing monarchy, or her tyrant mother. I do not know if she is telling the truth or not yet_ — _only time will tell for sure_ — _but Queen Glory and I personally believe her._

 _King Deathbringer,  
of the RainWings_"

"What do we do now, Your Majesty?" asked Prince Narwhal. "If Queen Scarlet is an animus, that makes her the first SkyWing animus to survive since the time of Darkstalker. But how did nobody know sooner?" He paused long enough for it to occur to him. "Unless she kept it secret all these years, then once she had taken the throne from Queen Hurricane, she began using her secret magic freely, knowing nobody would dare kill her now that she was Queen."

"And," Prince Winter took over, "if she has been using her magic for whatever her mind could think of for the past thirty years, she may have lost her soul a long time ago. What if Queen Scarlet was never evil to begin with? Wastefulness of her magic made her that way. It made her kill her husband, King Fell, all of her daughters besides Tourmaline, and all of her sisters."

"How do you propose we deal with her, now?" Princess Snowfall asked. "If she is an animus that has lost her soul decades ago, she will not listen to reason. And how can we kill Queen Scarlet if she is more powerful than any of our animus? They do not use their magic wastefully like Scarlet does."

"The magic of all our animus together will be more than enough to overwhelm Scarlet," said Glacier. "It does not matter how many years ago she lost her soul to overuse of her magic. It still will not be enough for the combined efforts of over a dozen of our own animus."

Prince Hailstorm suddenly rushed into the throne room, barging right through the previously closed doors.

"Prince Hailstorm!" Glacier exploded. "What is the meaning of this? You are a dragon of the First Circle. You know better than to barge into council meetings like this."

"P-P-Princess Blister!" Hailstorm sputtered. "SandWings! Attacking! The border guards are dead! Queen Battlewinner is with them! She brought the entire NightWing army!"

"Prince Narwhal." Glacier turned to her brother. "Take your sons. Go alert the troops immediately. Tell them Blister is back. They will know what to do. I discussed it with them after the previous battle. They will inform you, Winter and Hailstorm of the battle plan for this scenario that I formulated with them."

Her brother and nephews were gone in an instant.

"The rest of you, come with me. We will meet the army outside. They should be there before we arrive."

* * *

When Queen Glacier and the rest of her council arrived outside the Royal Palace, they were immediately met by the sadistic glare of Princess Blister. Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings was by her side. Hundreds of NightWings and twenty SandWings were on either side of them.

"Blister!" the IceWing Queen snarled.

"You knew I would return. It is time to pay for what you did with your life." Blister lashed her barbless tail around to remind everyone what Queen Glacier had done to her to bring their previous battle to a halt. "Things will go differently, this time. You may think I have brought this massive army with me to slaughter all of you, but I am having second thoughts. _For now_." She paused for dramatic effect. "I was thinking about a rematch first. You and me, one-on-one, with all of our allies watching. Nobody will interfere if they wish to see their families again." She made sure to look at her allies especially. She wasn't against killing them if they ruined her shot at revenge.

"Fine by me," said Queen Glacier. "This will be a decision you regret dearly, for it will be your last."

"It will be somebody's last," Blister said. "Surely not mine. I am the strongest dragon in Pyrrhia now that Morrowseer's out of the picture." She took note of Glacier's shocked face. "Surely you heard about it. Him and I were in the Rainforest Kingdom when Scarlet's ex-Champion attacked us. I used him as a meatshield so I could get out of there. I didn't need him anymore anyway. Truth is, I was planning to execute him myself, but Peril just made my life so much easier."

"Enough of your talk about dragons I don't even care to spit at," Glacier snarled. "Let's fight!"

Glacier immediately unleashed a burst of frost breath at Blister, but she ducked out of the way and one of her soldiers who'd been perched behind her on the icy ledge was frozen solid in seconds, instead.

"You couldn't hit the broad side of Darkstalker!" she taunted.

"Stop flying around like a Puffin and we'll see about that!" Glacier countered.

"A Puffin?" Blister put on a fake offended expression. "Do I look like an arctic bird to any of you? I know, I know. I should be a comedian."

"I thought you came to fight, not show off?"

"I did. But why kill you before I get to have fun with my revenge? I am going to rip off all of your scales slowly before I am finished with you, then I will rip all of your guts out, then have them ready to sell on the black market. I hear the guts of a famous Queen will fetch a good amount of gold from the right buyer. I'll have the rest of your body preserved so I can add it to my collection as a reminder of my victory here. But maybe I'll even eat your liver for breakfast in front of all your loyal subjects after I kill you. I'm starved! Wouldn't that be a _grand_ way to make sure my name goes down in all future history books?"

"You'll _be_ history after today," Glacier snarled. "You'll go down in the history books alright, but not for killing me. You will be remembered as the first of the SandWing Princesses who died in The War of SandWing Succession when they are updated after this war is over. And they will also have to be updated to say that Blaze of the SandWings became the best Queen in the history of Pyrrhia."

"I'll rip her to shreds after I'm done with you!" Blister roared, then charged at Glacier. "I'll update the history books myself, and write it with your's and Blaze's blood! I'll drain all the blood from your and Blaze's corpses into jars and sell it as ink when I'm finished here! I hear blood ink is popular among some."

Glacier slashed Blister across the face with her tail; the result looked as if the SandWing Princess had been lashed.

Blister immediately roared like a possessed dragon, which could be very well possible given how wicked she was, and body slammed the IceWing Queen right into the walls of her palace. They crashed through the walls, and continued their fight.

"Oh, will you look at this?" Blister cooed in a way that made Glacier sick to her stomach. "IceWing Dragonets! I didn't know we crashed right into the nursery. I think I'll have a snack! I'm feeling rather peckish right about now!"

"NO!" Glacier roared and tossed Blister right out the opening they'd made in the Royal Nursery. She followed her right out of the nursery after telling the dragonets to find somewhere to hide outside the nursery and wait for Prince Narwhal to come retrieve them. "You will _not_ harm my grandchildren. Get near them again and I'll rip out your heart before you can blink."

Blister greeted the IceWing Queen with talons swiping across her face. Glacier roared in agony; an eye rolled across the tundra.

"Ooh!" she nearly moaned. "An appetizer for me. What? Didn't you hear? Eyeballs are a delicacy if you season them right and give them a few sprinkles of IceWing blood! Or SkyWing! To hell with it. It doesn't matter to me as long as it's blood."

Blister backed away when Glacier came at her, trying to tear through her throat with her talons.

"Pity. You're getting slow in your old age," Blister taunted, then somersaulted in place to kick Glacier under the chin. A tooth flew through the air and impaled an IceWing in the throat. She was dead in seconds. But Glacier didn't have time to see who it was before Blister body slammed her to the ground and pressed her hind legs against the IceWing Queen's throat and stomach, effectively pinning her against the ground. "Any…last…words?" she asked in a horrifyingly slow fashion. "You are going to see what your guts look like before you die." She began moving her talons towards Glacier's exposed belly, and suddenly blue blood sprayed across the ice. "Are…you…ready…TO DIE?" she roared.

"I should be asking you that," Glacier muttered, and then blasted Blister square in her chest with her frost breath. The SandWing screeched in agony, and fell backward before she could disembowel her greatest nemesis.

Queen Glacier immediately tackled Blister before she could recover from the blast. Before she could do anything about it, the IceWing now had a hold on Blister's partial tail. Before Blister could even bite with her jaws or squirm free, Glacier gripped her throat tightly as their wings beat evenly. They rose up into the air as Blister continued, in vain, to try and break free from Glacier's hold.

The next thing Blister realized, her hind legs were deeply held by Glacier's lower talons as she felt the air freeze around her very hide. The SandWing hadn't even noticed how cold the air was here, her adrenaline had been rushing so much before. A look of horror came over the SandWing Princess' face when she heard a crackling sound rising in Glacier's throat, before she unleashed her frostbreath on Blister. She began screaming in agony as ice slowly encased her body.

"Have mercy!" she cried, even though Glacier couldn't answer her. "I still have all The Royal SandWing Treasure! You can have as much from it as you wish if you let me live!"

Glacier stared into Blister's eyes in the SandWing's final moments of life as if to say 'You've given me what I want. You are finally dead, and will never hurt anyone ever again'. She had no intentions of sparing this sadist from exactly what she deserved.

Within seconds, her entire body had frozen over amidst Glacier's frostbreath; the IceWing Queen only dropped her long-time rival's body to the ground when she was certain no breath came from Blister. The lower half of the SandWing's body smashed to smithereens upon the crash landing.

"FOR THE ICEWINGS!" Queen Glacier roared triumphantly.

The SandWings who'd come with Blister immediately began fleeing at the side of their commander's death, in spite of Queen Battlewinner demanding they stay and fight to the bitter end.

On the other talon, the NightWing army remained, awaiting their Queen's decision.

"Destroy them all," Queen Battlewinner finally said what felt like a eternity later. "When we are finished, this moment will go down in the history books," she added without realizing she was quoting Glacier and Blister's conversation, "as 'The Great IceWing Genocide'. Leave no IceWings left. Show no mercy. Impale all their heads on spikes after you kill them. The IceWing Tribe will be nothing but a memory from this day forth, and we will avenge Princess Blister."

Queen Glacier stood fearlessly before the NightWing army with her own. If she was meant to die here, then she would die victorious. Princess Blister had lost and so would Queen Battlewinner, she believed. There were no more animus NightWings. They had vanished when Darkstalker was sealed away by Clearsight using a bracelet enchanted by Fathom the SeaWing. He was the first NightWing animus in history and the last. The NightWings were at a great disadvantage in this battle, if Queen Battlewinner really intended to go through with it.

The NightWing Queen stepped forward to face Queen Glacier, who didn't flinch even though Queen Battlewinner was as half the size as the distant mountains, and towered over her like a monster. She was the largest NightWing that Glacier and Blaze's soldiers had ever seen, dwarfing even Morrowseer, and they started wondering if this was a terrible idea after all. Some of the IceWings and NightWings alike who had never seen Queen Battlewinner thought they were staring at Darkstalker. Legend said that since he had enchanted himself to be immortal, he kept growing even though he'd been enchanted to sleep for as long as he wore that bracelet. Would he be this massive of a dragon, too, if anyone ever saw him?

How would Queen Glacier kill a dragon that could crush her with one claw? Defeating Blister had been one thing. Queen Battlewinner must be at least eighty if she had grown to be so large. Even the healthiest NightWings didn't grow this massive until they'd lived at least eight decades. It just didn't happen.

"If you are smart as you claim to be," hissed Queen Battlewinner, "then you will surrender now. I may just consider sparing your dragonets if you do. Otherwise, this will be a complete IceWing genocide, and I will erase you all from Pyrrhian history. All scrolls that talk about IceWings will be burned, and your tribe will be forgotten in a couple years. You blame us for what happened to Prince Arctic two millennia ago, when it was _his_ decision to leave with Foeslayer. He didn't want to marry Snowflake after she fell in love with Princess Snowfox, and I can't say _I_ can blame him. I would have abandoned my own tribe too if they supported such behavior just because one of them was Queen Diamond's niece."

"Prince Arctic nearly _murdered_ Snowflake!" Glacier roared. "How dare you suggest he was in the right? I do not agree with Darkstalker's ways either, but he was right to enchant Prince Arctic to disembowel himself. It is a shame Princess Snowfox didn't wipe out your tribe when she and Snowflake succeeded Queen Diamond as the rulers of the IceWings. Tyrants such as you never would have been born."

"You are either the bravest or most foolish dragon I have ever met," said Queen Battlewinner, "standing up to me like this. I could squash you with one claw if I wish. You should fear me like everyone else does."

"I don't need to fear you," said Queen Glacier. "You will disappear from history just like Blister now."

" _Excuse me_? You are in no position to be making threats!"

"That is no threat. That is a promise. NOW!"

More than a dozen IceWings suddenly attacked Queen Battlewinner from every direction with their frost breath, attacking her eyes, breathing it down her throat, her chest, and on the underside of her tail; these were all weak points of a dragon as massive as she was.

"NO!" Queen Battlewinner roared. Her black scales began to freeze solid as all of the animus IceWings in the tribe attacked her with their frostbreath that had clearly been enchanted to be much deadlier than it usually was. The NightWing Queen desperately reached for Queen Glacier in an attempt to take someone with her, but the last of her body froze solid before she could.

The army of NightWings had frozen too, but only figuratively. Nobody had ever defeated Queen Battlewinner. But what would they do now? Battlewinner's only heir had run away, Princess Greatness, had ran away two days ago, wanting nothing to do with her mother, and claiming she didn't want to be a Queen when the time came anyway.

Queen Glacier turned to the NightWing army, and they all immediately bowed down before her.

"You are right that you will have a new Queen that is not a NightWing," said Queen Glacier, "but I will not be your Queen. Even if I did wish to let you live here, which I do _not_ , you would not survive here. There is no place for you to live, and I doubt Blaze will assist you in living here either. You will all fly to the Rainforest Kingdom and swear allegiance to Queen Glory and King Deathbringer of the RainWings, just as Ex-Princess Greatness has already done. Anyone that refuses this deal will not leave where you all stand now. My animus dragons will have no issue with freezing you all just like your tyrant Queen if you refuse."

Now, Queen Glacier turned to address her own soldiers, as well as Blaze's.

"This day," she said, "will be called 'The Battle of Ice and Night'. Nobody will ever forget our fight here. Pyrrhia has been cleansed of two of its tyrants. Now, it is time to rid the continent of the last two. Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings and Princess Burn of the SandWings are all that stands now between us and victory. And between Princess Blaze and the empty SandWing throne that is rightfully hers."


	34. Chapter 33: Unexpected Visitors

**Chapter 33:  
Unexpected Visitors**

 _One month later…_

Queen Glory did not attempt another attack on the SkyWings after the total failure that was their first attack, even with the sudden influx of NightWings that, according to another letter from Queen Glacier, had sworn their allegiance to her per a deal they made with the IceWings after Queen Battlewinner's death in the Ice Kingdom. None of them could have foreseen that Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings was an animus. Prince Narwhal and Prince Winter had been the ones who, albeit reluctantly, told Moonwatcher that her mother did not make it, for Glory was too shaken up by watching her subjects die, while Vulture's family had been grieving Sirocco; Moonwatcher took the news horribly. She had run off and nobody found her for three days, which was when she finally returned covered in scars due to running through a thorn patch, but otherwise physically unharmed. Kinkajou and Tamarin hadn't left Moonwatcher's side ever since, nor had the youngest of Cobra's children, Qibli. Winter had come to the Rainforest Kingdom to by Moonwatcher's side for the past month, on his father's orders.

Glory quickly covered herself up with the softest mosses Deathbringer could find. She was very sore, and Deathbringer had just finished explaining to anyone that may have heard her screaming that she was alright, but had just simply stubbed her foot against her desk. That was a complete lie, of course, because they did not want anyone knowing what had really happened until the big reveal in a little while. Deathbringer wasn't here right now, as he was flying around the kingdom, telling everyone to meet outside Queen Glory's Royal Pavilion immediately.

She knew that Clay and the rest of her friends, including Peril and Riptide, were already outside, as were Kinkajou, Moonwatcher (who would not have come along without a lot of begging from Kinkajou, for she was still grieving her mother), Tamarin, and Jambu. Heliconia and Liana arrived moments later with all of the Ex-Queens. Much to Glory's anger, it was twenty minutes before the rest of the tribe had arrived, including a female NightWing she hadn't seen before, with diamonds wrapped around her horns and a diamond necklace, and a massive scar down her chest; this NightWing's wings also dropped as if something unseen was weighing them down. Glory wondered when this NightWing had arrived; Kinkajou hadn't said anything about there being a NightWing in the tribe other than Moonwatcher and Fatespeaker.

Glory and Deathbringer flew down to greet this new NightWing; there were still RainWings arriving, so the meeting had to wait to begin either way.

As soon as they landed down, this NightWing immediately seemed nervous of Glory, and seemed to recognize Deathbringer.

"Y-You're here?!" she screeched. "I thought I could get away from all those NightWings on the island! I want nothing to do with any one of you!"

"He is on _my_ side," Glory said. "We are the Queen and King of the RainWings."

"D-Deathbringer? King?!"

"What is your name?" Glory asked her.

"P-Princess G-Greatness," she stammered. "D-Daughter of Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings."

"Your mother is dead. She lost a battle against the IceWings." Greatness' wings drooped further upon this news, but honestly, she wasn't severely broken up by it. Pyrrhia would be much safer with her mother dead. "So why did you come here?"

"To get away from my tribe! My mother was a tyrant, and I wanted nothing more to do with how they live. Oh, it was a living hell. We live on a volcano that has already erupted once. There is barely any food left, and we never have any sunlight. I couldn't take it anymore. My mother didn't care about me anyway. She only had me speak for the tribe, but it wasn't even my own opinions. I had enough when she made me execute my best friend, Vengeance, for supposed treason. I suspect she is finding out right about now that I've ran away, but she will never find me, seeing as how Deathbringer is here. Nobody else can track me."

Glory wasn't entirely sure if they could trust Greatness. She sounded sincere (and very nervous, as if she wasn't confident about speaking to royalty, or voicing her own opinions for once), but everyone knew the NightWings were allied with Blister in the war. What if everything Greatness had just said was a lie, and she was really here suddenly to spy on the RainWings?

 _I suppose I'd have to kill her if that is the case,_ Glory thought. _Which would be a shame. Greatness seems like a nice dragon._

"I don't want Blister to win this war," Greatness suddenly continued. "If she wins, her, Morrowseer and my mother will probably keep the war going just for fun. They don't care how many dragons die."

"Morrowseer is _dead_ ," Glory said. She flicked her tail over at Peril. Greatness immediately became nervous when she recognized Peril as the firecsaled SkyWing who was Queen Scarlet's arena champion. "Peril took care of him. She almost dealt with Blister as well, but she got away."

"Morrowseer? Dead?" Greatness seemed disturbed at first, then she said, "Thank the moons! But B-Blister is still alive! She'll tear me apart if she finds out I betrayed my mother."

"She won't even know you're here," Deathbringer said.

"But Blister has s-spies everywhere! They'll report back to her, and then I'll wake up to my head being cut off! Oh, I don't w-want to d-die!"

"I'll have the SandWings and IceWings guard you, if you want," Glory offered. "Nobody would get very far past Vulture and Cobra. Vulture can stay up all night to guard you without any sleep, if he must. He claims he once went several days without any sleep, and it barely affected him."

"Why is everyone gathering here?" Greatness suddenly whispered. "I've never seen so many Sandwings, IceWings, and RainWings gathered together." Then she noticed Moonwatcher sobbing on Kinkajou's shoulder. "And a NightWing?! Whose daughter is she?"

"Secretkeeper's," Glory whispered. "But…don't talk to Moonwatcher about her mother. Secretkeeper was murdered by Queen Scarlet last month."

"Oh dear," Greatness whispered. She wouldn't ask anymore about the subject. "But why is everyone gathering here? Are you going to attack Scarlet?"

"No," Glory said. "She is an animus. We will need a better plan if we are going to defeat Scarlet. She could kill my entire army with a snap of her claws if she wanted to. It barely even makes a difference that the NightWings have joined us now." She paused. "I called everyone here because I have important news here that is bound to make everyone happy. Especially my friends." She flicked her tail at a mound of moss setting at the edge of her Royal Pavilion, then she and Deathbringer immediately flew back up to the ledge.

Glory raised a talon and everyone fell silent. They had been talking amongst the dragons around them about why Glory could have called them here, if it was not something to do with the war.

"I know you are all wondering why I would call you here if it is not a war-related matter," she began, "but this news is bound to make everyone here happy." She looked at Moonwatcher, then over to Vulture's family. "Or at least feel better than some of you have been. Deathbringer, will you, please?"

Without speaking, Deathbringer lifted up the moss to reveal two eggs sitting in a grass-filled basket. One was much larger than the other, for it contained twins.

A united gasp carried across the crowd of dragons.

"Y-y-you're going to be a mother, Glory?" Sunny gasped.

"Who is the father?" Tsunami asked softly.

Glory flicked her tail at Deathbringer in response.

"But what will hybrid RainWing-NightWing dragonets look like?" an IceWing asked. "I've never heard of a RainWing and a NightWing having dragonets before."

"Neither I have," said a SandWing. "We will have to wait and see."

Now, Glory noticed that all of her friends were crying tears of joy. Even Tsunami, much to her shock. She'd never seen Tsunami cry in her life. (Besides the time they thought Clay had died from hugging Peril of course, before they had known he had fire-resistant scales.)

"Congratulations, Glory," someone suddenly said. Glory couldn't believe it when she realized it was Tsunami, who was now embracing Riptide and trying to stop crying.

"What are you going to name them?" Starflight asked.

 _Oh,_ now _I wish I'd paid attention to Deathbringer better when he told me_ _he_ _already had names for our kids,_ she thought.

"We agreed to name them Firefly, Anaconda, and Shadowrain," Deathbringer announced.

"But how do you know two of them will be daughters and the son will be mostly NightWing?" Cobra questioned. "You don't have future sight like Moonwatcher does."

"Call it a father's instinct."

"IceWings on the horizon!" a SandWing who'd been left on look out in the canopy suddenly cried out. "Queen Glacier is leading them! Blaze is with them too!"

"What?" Glory gasped. "Why would Queen Glacier and Blaze come here now?" She happened to look to Deathbringer, who looked guilty. "What did you do?"

"I sent Queen Glacier a letter, explaining what happened in the Sky Kingdom," he admitted. "I'm…sorry I didn't tell you. But we need animus on our side if we are to defeat Scarlet, and the IceWings have many animus."

"But there are already IceWings here!"

"Unfortunately, none of them are animus," Prince Narwhal interrupted, as he landed beside them. "Her Majesty didn't want to risk any of her animus' lives at first. But now it seems we do not have much choice but to involve them in this conflict."

"And how will we deal with Princess Blister?" Glory asked as they flew back to her Royal Pavilion.

"Blister is dead," Glacier spat. "She lead her small army and Queen Battlewinner led the NightWings right to my palace. She thought she'd win a rematch, but she was sadly mistaken. Now she's hard to tell apart from the ice clumps on the tundra. And Queen Battlewinner is dead, too. My animus dealt with her, in case Deathbringer didn't give you my letter."

"Good riddance to Blister, then," Glory muttered. "It's one less thing I have to worry about."

Queen Glacier and Blaze landed on the edge of the Royal Pavilion. They towered over Glory and Deathbringer, but they weren't intimidated.

"We heard about what happened in the Sky Kingdom," Glacier said softly. "We are sorry for your losses. I brought additional reinforcements from both our armies as soon as I read Deathbringer's letter. It is still hard to fathom that Queen Scarlet has been an animus all along, but it explains why she is such an evil dragon." She paused. "As you know, if a dragon does not use their animus dragon for good tasks, they will lose their soul. I believe that happened to Scarlet decades ago. She wasn't always as evil as she is now. But my animus can stop her, if she does not know we are coming."

"How?" Glory questioned.

"They have mastered their magic over the years. They do not fear losing their souls, as they only use it when necessary, and _never_ for wasteful tasks. Together, they can overpower Scarlet and kill her. Our animus do not like to kill dragons, but they said they would make an exception for Scarlet." Glacier and Blaze looked down suddenly, and shocked looks came across their faces. "These are your eggs?" she asked.

"Yes…" Glory said slowly.

"Then you cannot come with us," the IceWing Queen declared. "You must stay with them to incubate them. Deathbringer can lead your army as well as you, can't he?"

"There is no need. I already have everything arranged. I intended to ask Heliconia and Tamarin to take turns incubating my eggs until I return. They proved themselves to me during The Royal RainWing Challenge, and I wouldn't trust any other RainWings to watch over my eggs whenever I'm away."

"No," said Glacier. "You _cannot_ come with us. Even if your eggs will be taken care of, it is still too dangerous for _you_. Everyone knows how you nearly killed Queen Scarlet with your venom when you and your friends were her prisoners. She let you live once after your last attack on her palace. She will kill you this time, if you come along."

"Not if we kill her first!" Glory protested. "And I know how to avoid Scarlet. If we bring Peril along to act as a bodyguard for me." Deathbringer seemed hurt by this statement. He'd thought he was Glory's only bodyguard. "Scarlet would never dare get close to anyone Peril is protecting. She is the most loyal dragon I have ever met. Peril will protect me with her life, which she doesn't really have to fear. Nobody can touch her."

"Scarlet doesn't have to touch Peril to kill her, I'm afraid, since she is an animus," Glacier sighed. "She can command rocks to collapse and crush Peril if she wants, or command a spear to not burn or stop until it has skewered her."

"I know how animus work," Glory hissed. "You're not going to stop me from leading them. My decision is final."

"So be it, Your Majesty, but for your eggs' sake, you must be careful in this battle. They cannot afford to lose their mother. You must be the first dragon they bond with when they hatch next year."

Glory felt a ping of guilt in her heart. What Queen Glacier said was true. A mother dragon must always be the first thing her dragonets imprint on when they are born, and then their father. What if something did happen to her in this battle, and she would never get to see her dragonets hatch next May?

 _No, I cannot think that way,_ she thought, and forced the thought out of her mind. _I must be positive that nothing bad will happen to me. Scarlet_ will _perish this time. She may be an animus, but she will not be strong enough to overpower all of Queen Glacier's animus. She will be one animus against many. The odds are in my favor, now more than they ever have been. We will win this battle and avenge the fallen._

Glory then turned to Deathbringer and had one thing to say as she rubbed her head against his chest: "I love you."

* * *

The Sky Kingdom was much more well-guarded than Queen Glory had remembered. There were SkyWings all along the ledge of Queen Scarlet's palace. Was she really that paranoid now, that another attack would come, and her magic wouldn't be enough to stop it?

"How do you propose we get past all those guards?" Blaze whispered. "They are so many of them."

"My animus will handle that," Queen Glacier whispered back. "Nobody will know what happened. A simple sleeping spell will do the trick before an alarm can be sounded. Then we can slip in, assassinate Queen Scarlet, and get out of here."

 _She makes it sound so simple,_ Glory thought, _but she doesn't know how powerful Scarlet's magic is. She could make us all still as statues again the moment any of Glacier's animus try to enchant something to kill her. I am afraid this will not be as easy as she wants it to be. I must warn her._

"Your Majesty," she whispered to Glacier. "There is something you must know. Queen Scarlet…her magic is much more powerful than you think. When we had been ready to kill her last month, she enchanted all of us to be still, like statutes, and made us watch her execute the prisoners we'd come to rescue. She could easily do that again, and kill all of your animus before they can enchant anything to kill Scarlet."

"Thankfully," said Glacier, "we suspected as much after Deathbringer told us what happened here before. My animus enchanted the armor they are wearing to make them immune to any enchantments Scarlet may try on them. She will be sorely disappointed when she learns they are immune to her tricks."

"Thank the moons," Glory whispered.

"You should really reconsider staying back here with guards," Blaze interrupted. "Queen Glacier is right to fear for your safety. If Scarlet sees you here again, she will not let you walk away this time. Please, for your future dragonets' sake, do not come with us into Scarlet's Palace."

"I _will_ be alright," Glory assured her. She turned to Queen Glacier. "If you are really worried, then why don't you have one of your animus enchant me to be safe from all harm during this battle?" Queen Glacier looked down at her talons, and said nothing. "They can do that, can't they?"

"In theory, yes, but…no animus in the history of our tribe has ever attempted it before," she lied. "It may not even work. Darkstalker succeeded in enchanting himself to be invulnerable and immortal, but he was a much more powerful animus than anyone in my tribe is. Darkstalker was born under the light of three full moons, therefore his abilities were much more powerful than any of my animus ever will be."

Glory snorted. "Well, then, I suppose I will go into this battle as I am. Nothing anyone says or does will stop me from leading this army with you, Queen Glacier. What kind of Queen would I be if I avoided my battles?"

Glacier nearly said 'But what kind of mother would you be if you died before your eggs hatched, just because you couldn't let seeking revenge go?', but she decided against it. She knew even that wouldn't change Glory's mind, and would probably only offend her. The IceWing Queen could only hope nothing happened to Glory, like what happened in Moonwatcher's vision that had been described in the letter Deathbringer wrote to her.

But surely they would be nothing to worry about. Deathbringer and Peril would put their lives on the line for her; she knew that Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, Starflight, and Riptide, all of whom had also come along, would as well. But would their loyalty to Queen Glory be enough to protect her from Scarlet's magic? Queen Glacier could only hope it was. None of them were enchanted to be safe from Scarlet's magic like her own animus had been. Most of them had refused it, and after Queen Glacier's lie that they couldn't enchant Glory to be invulnerable, she now wanted nothing to do with the idea.

 _I'll show them,_ Glory thought. _All it will take is my venom and Scarlet will die. I don't need the help of animus. I only need a few guards to come with me, just to be safe._

She flicked her tail at Deathbringer, Vulture, Cobra, and another SandWing she'd have to learn the name of later, sending them a silent message to sneak off with her. Her look told them everything. They would deal with Scarlet their own way. No more waiting. They needed to sneak into the Royal Palace while the guards were being dealt with. Scarlet would be dead before the new reinforcements could do anything about it themselves. She had the best two assassins in all of Pyrrhia, Deathbringer and Cobra, following her. How could it go wrong? Scarlet would surely be dead before she even knew they were there, or could enchant something to save her life.

"Deathbringer, Cobra," Glory whispered. "You have spied on Scarlet before. Lead the way to her throne room. Kill anyone that gets in our way. No exceptions."

"Yes, Your Majesty," they answered in unison.

"The reign of Queen Scarlet ends tonight," Cobra hissed. "We will all be one step closer to defeating Burn."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you!" a raspy female voice suddenly bellowed from seemingly nowhere.

And now the small group turned to find themselves facing none other than Queen Scarlet herself.

* * *

Chaos suddenly erupted just behind the walls of Scarlet's Royal Palace.

 _What in the name of three moons?_ Queen Glacier wondered.

It sounded like several dragons were screaming in horror, and another was screaming in pure agony, a piercing scream that cut through the air like talons cutting flesh. Glacier assumed Scarlet was holding another death battle in her arena, and somebody was having a limb ripped off, based on how they were screaming.

But then, suddenly, three SandWings and a NightWing flew over the wall of the palace in complete panic and back to the small army, all their faces dripping with blood, but it was not their own. Everyone recognized these four dragons immediately.

"Deathbringer!" Glacier roared. "Cobra! Vulture! I told everyone to wait for my command to attack Scarlet! And where is Queen Glory? You had all better have a good explanation for why you disobeyed my direct orders!"

Before any of them could explain themselves, Queen Scarlet flew over the wall surrounding her palace, no longer wearing the iron mask she would usually wear to hide her melted face, flying high above them all. She had a snarl on her face and her teeth were dripping with blood—another dragon's blood!—and smoke rising from her nostrils. She was alone, it seemed. Maybe this was the perfect time to kill her; she was flying right at a crowd of dragons that all wanted her dead.

But then Queen Glacier realized that Scarlet held something in her talons, but nobody in the army could tell what it was, for Scarlet kept her distance, as if she was suddenly doubting she could handle them by herself after all. All they could tell is that it was dripping blood, and that sent uneasy feelings through most of the dragons who hadn't seen what transpired behind the palace walls.

Scarlet suddenly flew forward so the object in her talons could be seen clearly, and Deathbringer was the first of many dragons that began screaming as if Scarlet had just ripped them open.

By the time the entire army had realized what the object was in Scarlet's talons, all of Clay's friends were screaming.

Deathbringer had hoped what he witnessed behind the palace walls had just been a trick, but it wasn't. It was as real as the dragons around him.

The SkyWing Queen was holding the severed head of Queen Glory of the RainWings.


	35. Chapter 34: Blood in the Water

**Chapter 34:  
Blood in the Water**

"Oh, Auklet, you're such a dear!" Queen Coral cooed at her youngest daughter. Anemone seemed annoyed that she wasn't the center of their mother's attention anymore, but Coral was so preoccupied with Auklet that she didn't notice. She hadn't let Auklet out of her sight since she'd hatched; like with Anemone, she had her newest daughter attached to her with a harness.

Whirlpool seemed even more annoyed by Coral's display of affection than Anemone. _Those two Animus are my key to the throne,_ he thought bitterly. _We don't need another Queen ruling over the Sea. Five millennia has been long enough. It's time for a King to rule over everything in the Sea, not another Queen. My spell on your elder daughter will make sure of that, because she can't help but follow my every command. You don't even realize the potential of animus, or that I_ am _one thanks to your daughter's willingness to practice with her magic. Your daughter will kill you with her magic then bestow the right to your throne upon me. I will be better for your kingdom than any Queen. It's such a shame you had Orca's statue destroyed. I could have used it to make sure I keep the throne for decades to come. If none of your heirs can survive, there'd be nobody to steal it from me._

Coral looked over to Whirlpool. "You're rather silent today," she said suspiciously. "What are you brooding about now?"

"Your eldest daughter," he said. "Besides Anemone." Anemone frowned at him. "And how much of a failure she was when I tried teaching her Aquatic. I am glad she left, and took Riptide with her. We don't need anymore failures in m—your kingdom."

Coral narrowed her eyes at him. _What do you me_ your _kingdom? I know you were about to say "my kingdom"? You are definitely plotting something._ She lashed her tail, which still had the Narwhal tusk tied around it, ferociously.

"Your Majesty," said a SeaWing messenger called Snapper. "I apologize for my intrusion, but this letter just arrived from the Ice Kingdom. It is from Queen Glacier. She marked it as urgent, so I brought it to you immediately when I was sorting your mail." When she walked past Whirlpool, she felt a chill run down her spine. _Why is it I get these chills whenever I get near Whirlpool lately?_ she wondered.

"Thank you, Snapper."

Once Snapper left the royal chamber, Coral ripped open the envelope and began to read. _No greeting?_ she thought. _It must be_ very _serious if Queen Glacier didn't start it off with a greeting._

" _You must keep your 'allies' under control in the future. This is the second time Princess Blister has attacked my kingdom, and she didn't leave this time. She's dead. She gave me no choice."_

Coral gulped and tears flowed down her face. "Oh my. B-Blister's dead? And why would she have attacked Queen Glacier's palace twice? I always thought she was a kind dragon."

"You haven't heard the rumors about her then, Your Majesty," said Whirlpool. "That she has a tower filled with everything she's ever killed, stuffed and preserved, and that she keeps the heads of dragons she killed in the war outside her stronghold to frighten off potential thieves wanting to steal the Royal SandWing treasure. But I suppose it does not matter anymore, seeing as how she's dead." _Good riddance, too. Dragons like her deserve to die._

Coral seemed to ignore him as she resumed reading the letter.

" _Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings is dead, too. The NightWings have sworn their allegiance to Queen Glory of the RainWings, as a part of a deal with my tribe to spare them._ "

"Queen Glory?" Whirlpool gasped.

"Isn't Glory the RainWing who is one of my daughter's friends?" Coral questioned.

"Yes, I believe so. It's hard to believe she became a Queen so fast. They were here what, a month and a half ago?"

"Yes. But I'm not surprised. Glory seemed like a smart dragon. I believe she'd make a grand Queen for the RainWings. They needed one to restore their standing among the other tribes. They used to be a grand tribe, but that was before I was born. My mother used to tell stories about when the RainWings weren't lazy and useless." She glanced back down at the letter. "Hmm. That seems to be all Queen Glacier wrote." She then looked back to Whirlpool. "Whirlpool," she said.

"Yes?"

"I have been thinking," she went on. "You have served me well for years and I appreciate you for that, but I have come to the decision that it is time to replace you. I had seen the way you behaved around Anemone before, most recently when you said 'You are my key to the throne' to Anemone the day Tsunami returned, and I could let that slide because I know you'd never be able to kill me. I'd rip you wide open before you got the chance to strike me and you know it." He glared at her. "But I cannot let your 'bonding' with my daughters go on any longer. I have seen the way you've begun acting ever since Auklet was born. I will not condone any dragon your age showing apparent romantic feelings towards my daughters. Get out of my palace at once, take your things, and leave the Bay of a Thousand Scales immediately. I never want to see your scummy talons in my kingdom again. I will kill you myself if you ever return."

Whirlpool snapped. He lunged at Queen Coral with a blade crafted from a whale's rib bone—where he had hidden it all this time, she couldn't determine. Anemone and Auklet screamed with terror as their mother jumped out of her throne; blood spurted across the floor.

"MOTHER!" they cried. "No!"

"Do not worry," Coral groaned. "He did not score a deep wound. Just a slash across my shoulder. He _will_ pay for this!" she roared, and lunged back at her ex-advisor. "You will not leave this room, except in pieces and stuffed in a body bag. Nobody will be able to tell you apart from sushi when they have to clean up your corpse."

"NO!" Whirlpool roared. "I will have your daughters! They are animus, they are my key to taking your throne! They trust me! They know I can sympathize with them being animus, for I am one as well."

"What?!" Coral gasped. "And you never told me." _Does this mean he has lost his soul?_ she wondered, feeling a coursing terror in her veins. _I may actually have to kill him._ Then, more confidently, she thought, _So be it. Anything to protect my daughters and my kingdom. We do not need a soulless dragon living in my kingdom, let alone ruling it._

"Say goodbye to your daughters! They will be my subjects now!" Whirlpool suddenly tackled Queen Coral to the ground without realizing it would have fatal consequences. Anemone and Auklet had hidden behind their mother's throne so they did not see what happened. Blood dripped down Coral's narwhal tusk-tipped tail as it pierced through Whirlpool's soft underbelly.

"I told you that you'd never lay another talon on them," Coral said. She stood up slowly and removed the Narwhal tusk from his belly.

"I…will have my…rev…" Whirlpool's head dropped on the throne room floor with a thud. He was gone.

Queen Coral turned her attention to her hiding daughters. "It is safe now, dears. But do not come out yet. You do not need to see what happened. I will come for you once my chamber has been cleaned up."

When she turned away from them, Coral realized how much she was shaking.

* * *

"What got into him?" Commander Shark asked.

"The same thing that got into Prince Albatross in ancient times," Queen Coral answered.

"Just what are you saying?" asked Princess Moray.

"Whirlpool was an animus who wasn't careful with how much he used his magic and what he used it for. He'd lost his soul. He wanted to kill me and claim the throne for himself, to be a King that ruled the entire sea with Auklet or Anemone as his future queen."

"Scumbag," Shark hissed.

"I never did like him," said Moray. "You should have killed him years ago. I'd always had a bad feeling in my heart about him. I suppose I was right all along, given what transpired here." She paused. "There, all fixed," she said as she finished stitching the gash on her aunt's arm. "I suppose. Healing arts isn't exactly my area of expertise."

"It will do," Coral sighed. She suddenly looked sad, but not about Whirlpool, or even Blister anymore. "I just wish I could know how Tsunami is doing. Why hasn't she written to me? When she left with her friends, she said she would. I hope she is alright out there. I warned her how dangerous the world can be before they left. If something ever happened to Tsunami, I don't know what I would do. I've barely gotten to know her yet."

Commander Shark approached his sister. "Maybe it's not too late to switch sides in the war? Clearly Blister wasn't the sort of dragon we thought she was. She had a darker side she never told any of us about."

"Yes, I suppose you are right," Coral sighed. "It seems my daughter and her friends have sided with Queen Glacier and Blaze in the war. It would be wrong for us to continue fighting with their enemies when Blister's army has no commander now and the NightWings have sided with Queen Glory." She glanced back at Anemone and Auklet, who were peeking out from behind her throne even though she had told them not to. "I still can't believe that the real Blister wasn't the kind dragon we thought she was for the past twenty years. She never acted like…well, how Queen Glacier said she did in her letter. It would explain why Tsunami seemed uncomfortable around Blister when she and I were discussing Aquamarine's punishment." Coral's heart ached to think about Aquamarine, her last daughter to be killed by Orca's animus-touched statute; it had only been a month-and-a-half since Aquamarine's death. She hadn't really gotten over it yet, nor had she forgotten about Aquamarine's burial several yards from the royal palace, next to the burial spot reserved for King Gill if they can ever retrieve his body from Scarlet's palace.

"Your Majesty?" Shark questioned as Coral darted towards the exit of the throne room suddenly without ordering Anemone and Auklet to follow her.

"I must write back to Queen Glacier immediately," she answered him, knowing what he'd wanted to ask. "And then I must get in contact with Queen Glory. Watch over my daughters," she added, looking from Shark to Moray. "I will return within the hour."


	36. Chapter 35: Gory Glory

**Chapter 35:  
Gory Glory**

The SkyWing Queen was holding the severed head of Queen Glory of the RainWings.

The left side of Glory's face was completely shredded beyond recognition. Her eyes were closed tight, but everyone doubted it was Scarlet who did that; she'd never have that kind of respect for any dragon she murdered.

"NO!" Sunny cried with exasperation.

"GLORY!" screamed Deathbringer.

"The taste of her blood was divine, thrilling!" Scarlet began shouting so all of Glory's loved ones, _especially_ Deathbringer, could hear. "Would I do it again? YES! Oh, she's gory Glory, indeed!" The SkyWing Queen then began singing "The Dragonets Are Coming" in her shrill, rasping voice, a song they all knew very well but with her own take on its lyrics that would send chills down all their spines and would give them nightmares for years to come:

" _Oh, it's true, the dragonets are dying!_

 _They're not saving the day!_

 _They're coming to rest, for they know how to die!_

 _Oh, the dragonets are dying!_

 _HOORAY!_ "

"No! GLORY!" Deathbringer continued screaming, as several SandWings loyal to Blaze held him back, along with Cobra and Vulture. "GET OFF ME! I'm going to rip her apart for this! Damn it, let go of me!"

"She's gone!" Cobra yelled. "And you know going to battle Scarlet is suicide! Glory wouldn't want you to lose your own life just to avenge her."

"We must wait until the time is right to attack Scarlet again," Queen Glacier said, then she added, with a vicious snarl, "and avenge Queen Glory."

"Oh! 'Gory Glory'!" Scarlet's laugh sounded like some sort of sound a demonic creature would make mixed with a sound like ice shattering. "I'm a genius! I should become a writer!"

"Nobody would read your writing unless they wanted to be kept up all night having nightmares!" a SandWing screeched.

"Go to Hell, Scarlet!" Deathbringer roared. "I'll kill you! I swear I will! You will not get off easy for what you did to Glory! MY WIFE!"

"You mean _gory Glory_! That's all she is now!" Scarlet raised up her front talons and shouted "Here! CATCH!" before throwing Glory's head through the air at Deathbringer. He caught it without thinking and began screaming.

"You sadist bitch!" Tsunami roared.

"Thank you! I do what I can! Now who wants to lose their head next?! The taste of gory Glory's blood in my mouth is the most thrilling thing that's ever happened to me! She is just one of the dragons I'll kill—" Her head suddenly spun around to Peril, who felt a chill rush down her spine when their eyes met. "—and _you'll_ be next!"

Everyone's heads spun around to see who Scarlet had said that to.

 _PERIL?_ Rattlesnake's brain screamed. _We ordered her to stay behind in the Rainforest! But I suppose we need all the help we can get if we are going to kill Scarlet._

"I said let go me!" Deathbringer roared. "Scarlet must pay for what she did now! It wasn't your wife who died! How dare you hold me back?!"

Cobra slapped him _hard_. "Get a hold of yourself!" she barked. "I know you feel dead on the inside, but going to fight Scarlet will only get you killed. You were there when she enchanted the RainWings to gut themselves. What's to stop her from using her magic to kill you too?"

Now Peril saw Glory's severed head in Deathbringer's talons, and her head spun towards Scarlet in a rage.

"SCARLET!" the firescaled SkyWing screeched.

"So you returned, ex-champion. Do you intend to grovel at my talons or will you be the next dragon I kill?"

" _You_ will be the next dragon I kill!"

Peril shot through the air like a flaming dart.

"Peril!" Clay cried. "No! She is an animus!"

"I don't care! She'll be _dead_ after this! This is for Queen Glory!"

"Help her!" Queen Glacier ordered her animus.

Before the animus IceWings could reach the two SkyWings, blood dripped to the ground, and the distinct odor of burning flesh reached their noses.

"She did it!" Sunny gasped as Scarlet began screaming.

"Enchant my scales to heal!" she cried as her face began burning, for Peril had raked her talons through her flesh. "Quickly!"

Peril watched, horrified, as Scarlet's burns healed, and the odor of burning flesh faded away.

"You see? You can never kill me! I can enchant any injury to heal before it becomes fatal." She rose up high above them all. "You will never defeat me and this war will never end! All these dragons dying for the past two decades has been very thrilling. It will never stop and I'll kill everyone of you to ensure that!"

Vulture grinned. "Not if you die first."

"I'll never die before I have lived over a hundred years. The SkyWings will have me as their Queen for decades to come. Nobody can kill me. NOBODY!" she roared. "You are becoming as big a nuisance as gory Glory was. Enchant this old dragon's blood to become pure scorpion venom."

"No!" Cobra cried. "Father!"

"Vulture!" Blaze gasped.

At first Vulture had seemed alright, but then he dropped from the sky as if he'd been forced down by an unseen force. He began convulsing horribly as his family surrounded him.

"No, no, no!" Cobra cried. "You can't die! Somebody help me! You have animus!" she yelled at Queen Glacier. "They can undo Scarlet's enchantment, can't they?"

"I'm…proud of…you Cobra…" Vulture said in between his death throes, and then he was gone.

"G-Grandpa?" Qibli sobbed. Rattlesnake held him close. "N-no!"

Cobra stood up, holding her blade where Scarlet couldn't see it.

"She'll _pay_ for this." Cobra wiped away tears. She spun around to glare at Scarlet. "He did nothing wrong, damn you!"

Scarlet shrugged. "He got on my nerves. Why shouldn't I have killed him? That's what any competent Queen would do, crush anyone that gets on their nerves. You'll be the next one to die if you don't shut up."

Cobra blinked. _So that is what father grinned about_ , she thought. Something was moving behind Scarlet. Something as red as fire, and it wasn't Peril. She was still by Clay's side. _Your time has come, Scarlet,_ she additionally thought when she realized who it was.

She flicked a message at Blaze with her tail, one that Scarlet didn't seem to notice, or at least care about since she didn't understand SandWing sign language. _Tell Queen Glacier to have her animus enchant Scarlet at all once to lose her magic, but have them be quiet about it. They can't tip her off._

Queen Glacier nodded back and using her own IceWing sign language, she passed the message on to her animus. It was all up to them now.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at them. "What are you all doing down there? Discussing how you are about to die?"

She snapped her claws as if she expected the ground between all her enemies to collapse and kill them all, but nothing happened. _What?_ she thought and tried again not once or twice, but six more times, and it had the same result. _Why aren't they dead? The ground should have swallowed them up by_ _now_ _._

"It worked!" Queen Glacier declared triumphantly. "She has lost her magic. Now we can defeat her!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" Scarlet roared. "I don't know what trickery you did to take my magic away, but I'm still stronger than any of you. I could kill half of you before I break a sweat!"

Cobra sniffed. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying for her father. " _She_ will kill you before any of us die."

"She _who_?" Scarlet snapped.

" _Her_ ," snarled Rattlesnake.

Scarlet turned around, ready to kill whoever was behind her. Her face immediately felt as if it were on fire, as a black sludge splattered all over it. All hell broke loose as Scarlet began flying around like a mad dragon, looking for something, anything, to stop the horrible burning before it became fatal. It was RainWing venom and it had gotten through the eye holes of her iron mask, which was melting against her face (which he had put back on prior to enchanting Vulture)..

"I-It can't be!" Deathbringer gasped.

"QUEEN GLORY?!" the IceWings gasped together.

The RainWing Queen flew toward the army of dragons, Deathbringer in particularly.

"H-How? I don't understand! If you are alive, then what is thi—" His words trailed off as he looked to the severed head in his talons.

"If y-you are alive, then w-who—?" Queen Glacier stammered. "W-Who is _that_?"

"A little trick," said Queen Glory. "I plotted everything with your animus. I told as few dragons as possible, just to ensure we tricked Scarlet. She needed to believe she'd finally killed me for this plan to work."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Deathbringer cried, embracing her powerfully. "I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest when we saw her up there with your head!"

"That was all part of the trick. When we were planning this ruse, Princess Snowfall enchanted a rock to be a perfect clone of me, right down to matching my personality, while I'd hidden away in one of the open dungeon cells. All it took was an animus enchantment to make me invisible so I could get past Scarlet and her guards."

Deathbringer hugged her again. "Don't ever scare me like that again! If you are going to fake your own death, I want to know about it ahead of time. It crossed my mind, _Am I going to have to raise Firefly, Anaconda, and Shadowrain alone? What kind of life would it have been without Glory?_ "

Glory hugged him back. "I'm sorry. I felt horrible the whole time you all thought I was dead, but we didn't have time to tell everyone. Only Queen Glacier's animus dragons and I knew the plan. I wish I could have told you, but I had no chance to get a moment with you. I will understand if some of you can never forgive me for it. I can barely forgive myself for what I had to do."

"Oh, I love you anyway," Deathbringer whispered. "Don't ever leave my side again."

"I won't," Glory whispered back, then affectionately licked him on the cheek. "I promise."

"But…what happened to Scarlet?" Sunny asked.

"She's as good as dead. Even if she has some cure to RainWing venom we don't know about, she's lost her magic so she can't heal herself whenever she's hurt anymore. If she survives what I did to her, which I for one don't see how she can, seeing as how my venom got in her eyes, and that is a death sentence, then we will be able to kill her."

Queen Glory frowned as she looked over to Cobra, who was still weeping over Vulture with Qibli and Rattlesnake by her side. She walked over to them with Deathbringer.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she whispered. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"N-No," Cobra stammered. "Scarlet is dead. My father's murder has been avenged…that is the most closure I will have. I just wish, you know, something could bring him and Sirocco back so we could be family again, but I know animus dragons don't work that way…"

Glory heard the other dragons approaching. "I would say this is a time for celebration—" She felt herself choking up, and it took the sight of all her friends for her to to find the courage to continue. "—but that wouldn't be right. Not for Cobra and her children. They have lost two loved ones to Scarlet now. We will celebrate _nothing_."

Cobra looked over to her. "T-that wouldn't be fair to the rest of them," she said softly. "Scarlet has been defeated. You all deserve to celebrate your victory. If all past Queens had chosen not to celebrate a victory just because of losses, then there never would have been post-battle celebrations in the history of Pyrrhia. My father would want us to celebrate this victory."

"You're positive?" Glory asked equally as softly. "I don't want to disrespect your family right now. You are all going through a hard time." She embraced each of them one a time, which at least made them smile. Glory hadn't expected them to show any happiness.

"Yes, we are," said Rattlesnake. "Don't expect us to show up at the celebration, but we don't want you to not celebrate our victory. You all earned the right to celebrate what happened here. You, especially, have lost a lot, Queen Glory."

Glory knew she was referring to the dozen RainWing prisoners, and Secretkeeper, whom Scarlet had murdered one month ago. Even if Scarlet did die this time, she would never let it go. She wished she could kill Scarlet again and again and _again_ for all the suffering she has put those close to her through recently. Glory had never hated another dragon so much in her life; well, besides Morrowseer, anyway.

"I will not force you to come to the celebration," said Glory, "but know that the three of you are more than welcome if you decide otherwise. You deserve to celebrate this victory as much as any of us. I will not forbid you from coming to it, if you want to."

"But…" Qibli began slowly. "…where will it even take place? There are no places to celebrate in the Rainforest Kingdom."

Glory desperately looked to Deathbringer for an answer.

"There are bars all over Pyrrhia," he said. "That would be a good start."

Glory's ruff flared. "A _bar_? Even if we are all the right age to get in there, what makes you think all of us have a way to pay for drinks? I'm not exactly rich. The RainWings have no treasure. And I don't think Queen Glacier will be willing to buy every dragon here a drink," she added with a glance over to the Queen of the IceWings.

"Your wife is correct," said Glacier. "I will only buy drinks for mine and Blaze's soldiers." She looked across the field of IceWings and SandWings, numbering at least a hundred. "I'm sorry, but you will have to find a way to pay for your own drinks. I'd have nothing against it personally. However, my ancestors would not appreciate me spending the Royal IceWing treasure on dragons that do not live in my kingdom. I do not wish to disrespect my tribe's traditions."

"I understand," said Glory. "Nor would I force you to. I'll think of something."

"I've got you covered," Deathbringer said suddenly. "I never told you _why_ I ran away from our island, did I?"

Glory's head spun around towards him. "You never said you ran away from them to start with."

"Yes, I did. I had enough of Queen Battlewinner."

"So you went to Queen Scarlet. How is she any better?"

"She wasn't. I regret letting her pay me to murder her own son. I still haven't forgiven myself for what happened to Drakon, and I honestly don't think I ever will." He immediately changed the subject. "However, I did not leave empty handed, because I knew I could never return to the island anyway. So I threatened a few no-name NightWings to help me steal as much of the Royal NightWing treasure as we could carry, then when I got to my intended hide out, I did all three of them in, just to be safe."

"So then you can afford drinks for my friends and I?" Glory asked.

"Yes. I'll just have to retrieve some gold from my hiding spot under your pavilion before we all go to this bar."

"Will it even hold this many dragons?" Tsunami asked. "Or more importantly, even be able to serve us all?"

"They will," Deathbringer said. "If anything, they enjoy serving soldiers from the different tribes. It may take a while depending on how many dragons are working, but they'll get us all served. We'll just have to take up the outdoor serving area, I'm afraid."

Cobra and her two children suddenly approached them.

"We talked this over," Cobra said hoarsely, for she had been wailing over Vulture's death for some time before Glory spoke to her. "The three of us will join you, on one condition. We have an honoring ceremony for my father before the celebration even begins."


	37. Chapter 36: An Unforeseen Reunion

**Author's note:** This may be the last of the chapters I've written since my last update that I'll post today (I've also written chapters 37 and 38 and started on 39, they're just not proofread yet), but I can't believe this story is almost complete already. After this it's just four more chapters before it's all done.

* * *

 **Chapter 36:  
An Unforeseen Reunion**

Deathbringer had led them all to a decent-sized bar just on the border of the Rainforest Kingdom and the Mud Kingdom.

"So what battle did you all just win, Your Majesty?" asked one of the female bartenders. Apparently she was a SeaWing-NightWing hybrid, the first Glory had ever heard about or even seen in her life. For the most part, she had the body structure of a NightWing, including the same wings and starry scale pattern on their membranes, whereas she also had the legs and tail of a SeaWing, as well as the trademark SeaWing fins running down her back to the end of her back, as well as her underside. On her neck and tail, there were bioluminescent scales. Glory also noted that her scales weren't black like regular NightWings; rather, they were different shades and tints of indigo, while the scales running from her neck to the end of her undertail were a very light gray, with a few very dark blue scales running up portions of her legs.. Her only other visible NightWing trait was her forked tongue.

Glory could only wonder how her parents had met and fallen in love, considering that most SeaWings lived in the middle of the Bay of a Thousand Scales, and nobody here besides Deathbringer and the few other NightWings that had come along in the battle against Scarlet really knew where the NightWings' island was. ( _Thank the moons Queen Glacier left some of her best soldiers behind in my kingdom to keep everything in order,_ Glory thought at the same time. _I wouldn't trust those NightWings around the RainWings without guards to keep them in order. Grandeur is a good temporary Queen, but the RainWings and my eggs need proper guards until I return to make sure the NightWings don't cause trouble._ )

"It wasn't exactly a battle," Glory said. "More like a small conflict, as it was only one enemy against all of us."

"Who would be brave, or foolish, I don't know what to call them, enough to go up against over a hundred dragons by his or herself?"

"Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings. She was an animus all along and none of us knew it until last month. It took me working with the IceWing animus to fake my own death for us to finally defeat her. We aren't entirely sure yet, but we have every reason to believe that she's dead."

"Thank the moons for that," the bartender said, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. "She was threatening to burn this place down for refusing to serve Tourmaline several months ago. So…if Scarlet is dead, then who is the new Queen of the SkyWings?"

"Nobody," said Deathbringer. "She has no sisters or daughters left, and none of them had children before she murdered them all, so Scarlet died with no heirs."

"It will be The MudWing Tragedy all over again."

"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Queen Glacier. "But that is a necessary evil for us to win this war. Pyrrhia would have been doomed for certain if Queen Scarlet wasn't destroyed."

"We all know that very well here," the bartender said. "Anyhow, what can I get you all?" she asked, looking over the group of at least a hundred dragons without even a concerned look on her face, as if she'd done this plenty of times before.

"If you don't mind me asking," Glory said. "Who are your parents? I hope I don't sound rude, but you are the very first SeaWing-NightWing hybrid we've ever met."

"Oh, it is perfectly fine," she said with a smile. "I get asked that a lot. Well, you see. I've never really known my parents. When I hatched, the first dragons I ever saw were the two MudWings who own this bar. They're still not even sure how my egg ended up here in the Mud Kingdom, seeing as how neither of my parents were a MudWing. Anyhow, they said they did some investigating and discovered that my parents are a SeaWing called Princess Aquamarine and a NightWing called Vengeance. Apparently they had a one night stand or something when they were visiting the Mud Kingdom and were caught in a freak storm. They didn't return to their kingdoms until my egg was laid, and we were left to assume they'd left my egg here since their respective Queens wouldn't have approved of a SeaWing-NightWing hybrid."

 _Vengeance?_ Deathbringer thought. _That's the dragon who Queen Battlewinner had executed. How will I tell her she's never going to meet either of her parents? Aquamarine is one of Tsunami's sisters who was killed by the animus-touched statute._

"Aquamarine?!" Tsunami coughed. "That was my sister!"

"Was?" the bartender questioned. "What do you mean?"

Tsunami let out a heavy sigh. This wasn't going to be easy. "She was killed in the Royal SeaWing Hatchery by a statue that my also deceased animus sister Orca enchanted over a decade ago."

The bartender's wings drooped sadly. "What about my f-father?" Everyone looked to Deathbringer immediately and she noticed it. "You knew my father?" she asked him.

"Yes, I did," he admitted. _How on Pyrrhia am I going to explain this to her? She already found out her mother is dead._ "But…Queen Battlewinner of the NightWings…had him executed for treason. I'm sorry."

"I-it is alright. I needed to know what happened to my parents." She hung her head miserably. "I just never imagined I would find out I'm an orphan before I got to know them…" She began to cry, and tossed her charcoal stick and pad of paper on the ground. The charcoal stick snapped in half.

"What is your name?" Tsunami asked softly as she embraced the niece she didn't even know she had. "I mean, since you're my niece, I should ask that," she added awkwardly.

She sniffed and hugged her newly discovered aunt back before she answered. "I don't know for sure if it is what my parents would have named me or if this bar's owners simply jumbled together SeaWing and NightWing phrases to name me, but everyone calls me Depthreacher."

"Princess Depthreacher," Tsunami whispered.

"Excuse me?" she sniffed.

"Sorry. I said 'Princess Depthreacher'. My mother, your grandmother, is the Queen of the SeaWings."

"I-I'm royalty?" Depthreacher stammered. "And this place's owners never told me? I remember now that they even said they went with the name my then anonymous parents had chosen for me when they discovered a letter from them later on, so why wouldn't they tell me I'm related to the Queen of the SeaWings?"

"Your parents may have been trying to protect you by not telling the owners of this bar that you're related to royalty," said Queen Glacier. "With the war going on, a SeaWing Princess living in the middle of the Mud Kingdom would have been a target for a lot of kidnappers and assassins, or nothing more than simple greed. The SeaWings have a lot of enemies in this war, since they had been allied with Princess Blister of the SandWings before she died."

Depthreacher sighed. "I wish I could go see her one day. But if I leave here, I'd probably not have a job when I get back. My job here is all I've ever had. I can't afford to lose it. If the owners get mad at me and disown me, where else would I go? Who else would want some long-lost SeaWing princess that is half NightWing?" She wiped tears away. "I've overheard some customers in the past talk about how hybrids are 'freaks of nature'. I didn't know dragons can be so hurtful. It made me want to quit and runaway from everything but…I have nowhere else to go."

"Do you even like it here?" Queen Glory asked.

"Of course I do!" she answered quickly. "I love it here. Besides, it's all I've ever had."

 _That doesn't sound very sincere to be,_ thought Tsunami. _If there's one thing I know, it's when family is lying._ "You hate it here, don't you?" she asked.

"W-what makes you ask that?"

"You're family, and if there's one thing I know well, it is when my relatives aren't telling the truth."

Depthreacher sighed heavily. "I guess you're right. They only keep me here since I'm a hard worker, but they don't pay me very well or give me a good bed or anything like that. I've probably only earned ten sacks of silver with some gold and gems mixed in, probably on accident though, my entire life here. It's really not worth it, now that I think about it. But what else can I do? Who else would hire a freak of nature like me?"

"You're not a freak of nature," said Tsunami. "I'd love you as much as any other niece I may have out there. You being half-NightWing doesn't make you a terrible dragon."

Depthreacher hugged Tsunami. "Thank you. I just wish I knew where else I could go."

"Come with us after this," Glory interrupted. "Pack up your things and leave. Deathbringer and I will come with you to make sure the owners of this bar don't try anything like saying 'You can leave, but you have to leave all the silver and gold you've earned working here'. Since, you know, MudWings and SeaWings are enemies in the war. If you're not going to work for them anymore, they'd do anything to make your life miserable since their tribe is an enemy of the SeaWings in this war." She paused. "But anyhow. You had better get our orders taken before your jerk bosses suspect you're 'slacking off' and come out here."

"I'd tell them I quit if they ever said that to me," Depthreacher admitted. "But you're right. I'm sure some of your friends are getting tired of waiting anyway." She paused. "What can I get you?" she asked Queen Glory.

"A glass of wine, or two, will be enough for me," the RainWing Queen answered. "I'd prefer to be sober when I get back to the rainforest. I have eggs that need sat on."

Depthreacher had everyone's orders taken within twenty minutes, but it was another eight minutes after that before all the drinks had been delivered. Depthreacher chose to remain outside with all these dragons, after checking with her bosses first, since they were not busy otherwise.

Cobra stood up once the last drink had been delivered and the bartenders besides Depthreacher had left. The rest of the dragons all looked in her direction and sat their drinks down as they became silent.

"I know we all came here to celebrate our victory over Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings," said Cobra. "May she burn in Hell forever," she added bitterly. "But there is something else we must do first. Honor my late father, Vulture." She wiped away tears as Qibli and Rattlesnake embraced her. "A well known General who had fought in three past wars, and won. Let us respect him for all he had done for us. Let us toast for a father, grandfather, friend and ally." All the dragons rose up in respect, saluting for Vulture and clinking their glasses together in an elegy of pattern and song.

Rattlesnake stood up as soon as her mother sat down. She didn't want young Sirocco to be missed out of this toast, and respectfully, though reluctantly, she spoke of him for all to hear. "And we shan't forget little Sirocco, my other younger brother who was killed just a month ago today." She embraced Qibli as she said this. "Let us toast for my younger, brother…" She begins to break down, but Cobra caressed her before she wailed.

There would be time for tears by the end of the night, as the same elegy of glasses echoed between them.


	38. Chapter 37: Broken Trust

**Author's note:** This will be one of four chapters I'll be posting right now. I finished this story sometime last week.

* * *

 **Chapter 37:  
Broken Trust**

Princess Burn grumbled to herself as she landed outside Queen Scarlet's palace. She didn't understand why the SkyWing Queen had summoned her here so suddenly, when it was after midnight.

 _This had better be crucial,_ Burn thought with a yawn as she walked through the corridor to Scarlet's throne room. She'd been sleeping so well when a SkyWing messenger had arrived at her stronghold two miles from here, saying she needed to come to see Scarlet immediately. So she had, even if she wasn't exactly excited about an early-morning meeting with Scarlet. She'd rather be in bed for another seven or eight hours than sit through yet another boring meeting, while she was running on only an hour of sleep.

Queen Scarlet was awake, sitting on her throne as usual, and wearing a new iron mask over her face. Even though her face was completely concealed, Burn could sense the wrathful expression on the Queen's face.

"I'm glad you came immediately," said Scarlet. "Queen Glory allied herself with the IceWings and they attacked my palace. Queen Glacier's animus dragons enchanted me to lose all my own animus powers."

"Y-you're an animus?" Burn stammered. "But the last animus SkyWing was killed when your mother was the Queen of the SkyWings. _Weren't they_?"

"That is what she wanted everyone to believe, but I never used my powers before I killed my mother to take the throne," Scarlet explained carefully. She removed her helmet to reveal her face, which was even more disfigured than it had been before. Burn thought she was going to lose her lunch, but she resisted the urge. "Queen Glory did this to me after I thought I had killed her, but it'd only been a decoy, an animus-touched object enchanted to be a perfect clone of Glory. I could have healed myself immediately if they hadn't taken my powers away. I barely survived, only because my healers knew how to treat RainWing venom burns. Now if I can just find an animus and pay them well enough to restore my lost powers. Or force them to do it. I don't care which as long as I can renew my powers before Queen Glory's next attack. Then I'll enchant myself to be immune to other animus dragons' magic so it doesn't happen again!" she barked.

"So, Your Majesty…" Addressing Scarlet as 'her majesty' made Burn feel ill, but she didn't show it. "…why did you want me to come here at this time? It is only a few minutes after midnight."

"I have more news for you than my own failures," Scarlet hissed. "Your sadist sister, Blister, and Queen Battlewinner attacked the IceWings. But they're both dead. Queen Glacier killed your sister in a one-on-one battle, and her animus dealt with Battlewinner. Glacier spared the surviving NightWings only if they agreed to serve Queen Glory and live in the rainforest. The fools accepted this offer, and your sister's remaining army agreed to serve Blaze from that day on. Can you believe it?"

"I never imagined Blaze or I would outlive Blister," said Burn. "Then again, she's as ignorant as a scavenger. She thought violence was the answer to everything and never thought things through. As far as I'm concerned, she deserved to die. It's such a shame I didn't get to witness it." She paused. "You are correct, however. My sister's army and those NightWings are foolish for accepting Queen Glacier's terms. They clearly were letting fear of death cloud their judgment by agreeing to serve Blaze and Queen Glory. I would choose death over being loyal to them. Especially some no-name _RainWing dragonet_."

"Then you and I are on the same page." Scarlet grinned wickedly. Her completely melted face made Burn feel uneasy when she did this. "Now…how can we enchant myself so my powers return?"

"I know one dragon that can," Burn said slowly, as if she doubted this was a good idea. _I am going to regret telling her this,_ she thought. _I told Jerboa II I'd never tell anyone about her. But do I really have much choice? Scarlet and I need each other's forces and intelligence to win this war, and more importantly, I need her to claim the SandWing throne._ "She calls herself Jerboa II, but more importantly, she is the last animus SandWing in existence. She claims to be the daughter of Jerboa from the time of Darkstalker. That would make her over two thousand years old, of course, so I don't believe she's Jerboa's daughter. Maybe a descendant of Jerboa, but there's no way they are mother and daughter."

"There _is_ a chance," Scarlet growled. "IceWing legends say that Darkstalker enchanted himself to be immortal and indestructible. Now, I've done my research of SandWing history, so I know Jerboa was an animus as well. Jerboa could have enchanted her daughter to live forever after hearing about Darkstalker doing the same. We'll never know without forcing her to tell us, but that's my theory, and I doubt I am wrong."

"I shall bring her in right now," said Burn. "But for her sanity's sake, please keep your mask on. She told me that she has a weak stomach."

"Fine," Scarlet grumbled as she concealed her face with her iron mask again. "Whatever. As long as she can enchant me to have all my powers again. I shall pay her whatever price she names if she can do it. Otherwise…" Scarlet mimed slashing her own throat with her talons.

Burn tried not to gasp with horror as she exited the throne room to bring Jerboa II back in with her.

"Do not be afraid," Burn whispered to the SandWing animus. "If you honor her one request, she will pay you well and let you leave unharmed. Scarlet is a lot of things, but she will not betray a dragon that has helped her tremendously like you are about to do."

"I hope you are right," Jerboa II whispered nervously. "You know I hid away between the Kingdom of Sand and the Ice Kingdom when the war began for good reason. I don't want dragons like her, your sister, and Morrowseer finding me. I do not want to lose my soul for wasteful overuse of my powers like what my mother said happened to Darkstalker when we were young."

"Do not worry. Scarlet only wants one enchantment from you. She will explain everything."

"Fine. But I do not like this," she said as they approached Scarlet's throne.

"So you are the supposed daughter of Jerboa of legend," Scarlet said slowly. "Prove it."

"My mother fled to raise me between the Kingdom of Sand and the Ice Kingdom after word spread that Darkstalker enchanted his father to kill himself," said Jerboa II. "I have never seen Darkstalker for myself, but my mother told me all about him before she…disappeared. She could never die, for she had enchanted us both to be immortal, but I have not seen her in over two thousand years."

Scarlet turned to face Burn. "How did you find her?" she demanded. "This Jerboa and her mother haven't been seen in over two thousand years. Nobody knew where they disappeared to."

"I didn't find her," said Burn. "My spies in Blaze's stronghold did. They stumbled across her hut on the border of the Kingdom of Sand and the Ice Kingdom, then one of them reported back to me. Imagine my surprise when they said they'd found Jerboa's daughter, a dragon who all of Pyrrhia had thought died two thousand years ago."

"So. Jerboa. Can you enchant me so my animus powers return?" Scarlet asked. "In my most recent battle, Queen Glacier's animus enchanted me to lose my own powers. That is all I ask of you, to return to me what has been taken."

"I-I don't know if I can," Jerboa II stammered. "It was said Darkstalker could, but he was a much more powerful animus than I am."

Scarlet immediately turned on Burn. She seemed to forget Jerboa II was even there, her anger at Burn was so great.

 _Maybe I should take advantage of that and get out of here,_ thought Jerboa II. _I sense things are about to get ugly here._ She backed away a few feet without Scarlet noticing.

"BURN!" Scarlet roared. "What is the meaning of this? You told me she could return my lost powers to me!"

" _She_ told me _she_ could!" Burn screeched, glaring at the animus SandWing. "Why are you lying?" she demanded.

Jerboa II threw up her wings. "I'm not! Darkstalker was the first and only animus in history capable of enchanting other dragons to become animus. My mother has tried and so have I. We met with failure."

"You liar!" Burn snapped. "I should rip you apart!"

"It would do you no good," said Jerboa. "I enchanted my scales to be invulnerable centuries ago," she whispered. "That, and enchanting himself to be immortal, is what Darkstalker did in ancient times out of fear of assassination attempts."

"If you ask me," Scarlet interrupted, "I think you are the only liar here, Burn. And what happened to the last supposed ally who lied to me?"

"I did _not_ lie to you! SHE DID!"

"I've trusted you all these years, given you all the military support you could ask for, and even given up some of my family's treasure to help you out," said Scarlet, sounding sincerely hurt, "and this is how you repay me?" She turned back to Jerboa II. "You _will_ enchant me so I can regain my powers, or I swear on the moons, I will find a way to kill you, immortality or no immortality. Or I can just torture you indefinitely. You may have enchanted your scales to be invulnerable, but you will still feel pain."

"That will barely matter," said Jerboa II. "I would feel barely any pain, and I could enchant myself to feel none at all if I needed to."

"Then I'll torture _her_." Scarlet pointed at Burn. "I may not be able to harm you, but she is looking very soft right now." She snapped her claws and five guards immediately swarmed on Burn, holding her in place. "Tell me, old friend, have you ever been curious in the slightest about what a disemboweled SandWing looks like? Surely your late sister's obsession has left you just a tiny bit curious."

"Never!" Burn barked. "I am not a sadist like you are! Or like Blister was!"

"Well, I _am_ curious," Scarlet continued, "and I think you would make a perfect guinea pig for my curiosity. I have found myself a new executioner that would have no qualms about cutting you open if I order him too. He'd find it as thrilling as I would, I am positive."

"No!" Jerboa II cried. "I'll do it." She paused. "Enchant this dragon to regain all powers which she lost to the IceWings." Another pause. "There! It is done."

Scarlet seemed to swell up as if she felt her lost powers returning. "I thank you," she said. "But I have no intentions of sparing Burn. I wasn't lying about being curious about what SandWings look like on the inside. Guards, take her to my executioner! I shall be there in a moment to watch him at work. Tell him to await my arrival."

"Yes, your majesty," said the five guards as they forced Burn towards the door that led to the executioner's chamber.

"No!" Burn cried. "You can't do this to me! I have done everything you wanted since the war began!"

"Yes, that is true," said Scarlet, as if she was having second thoughts. "But that will not quell my curiosity. You are the only SandWing left here, I am afraid."

"NO!" Burn roared. "You backstabbing bitch! You will pay for this! I have given you everything any ally could ever give! How dare you repay me this w—" Her furious voice faded away as she was led down the stairs, the fifth guard shutting the door behind her.

"As for you," Scarlet said a minute later. "You are free to go." She tossed a bag of gold to Jerboa II. "You did what I asked. I have no reason to imprison you. Although I have a feeling you could use some enchantment to escape if you wanted."

"Yes, I could. But why don't you free Burn? She did nothing wrong."

"I have no use for her anymore. It's more than just me being curious about how a SandWing looks on the inside. You could say she's outlived her usefulness. I would have had her killed sooner or later anyway, regardless of my curiosities."

"I suppose there is nothing I can do to change your mind."

"There is not. This will be Burn's last day of life."

Jerboa II sighed. She hadn't known Burn for all that long, really, but a part of her would miss her. Still, she knew there was nothing she could do to save the condemned SandWing now; any enchantment she tried using to save Burn could just be undone by Scarlet. So, Jerboa II did the only thing she could do, and left Scarlet's throne room. She did not want to be present for Burn's execution.

* * *

When Scarlet arrived in the executioner's chamber, Burn had already been strapped down on an iron table with chains. There was one chain around each of her limbs, including her tail, which would have otherwise still been deadly.

"Your Majesty," said the new executioner. He had no clue about what Scarlet had done to his predecessor. He simply assumed he'd left before they could talk again.

"You may begin," said Scarlet.

"BACKSTABBER!" Burn roared. "TRAITOR! BITCH! YOU WILL BURN IN HELL!"

"Cut out her tongue. I've had quite enough of her mouth."

"Don't you even dare!"

And then Burn spat fire all around the chamber, but it was quickly quelled by an unspoken enchantment cast by Scarlet.

"Enchant her to have no fire," Scarlet muttered afterwards.

Now fearlessly, the executioner propped open Burn's jaws with some sort of tongs, then he went for her tongue with a scalding hot knife. The SandWing screamed terribly loud as he removed her tongue with a single swipe of his knife.

"Ahh!" Scarlet moaned. "Much better! Now cut open her stomach. I have always wished to see what a SandWing looks like on the inside!"

"Yes, Your Majesty," said the executioner, as he looked for a different blade to use. He chose a six-inch blade, as scalding hot as the previous one. Scarlet now noticed they'd been setting over the open flame of his oven, and he'd had to retrieve them with blacksmith tongs.

Burn's world went black when she felt the blade slice through her exposed underbelly. Her screams would also fade away into oblivion after a minute of suffering the worst pain she'd ever felt in her life, which ended seconds later.

"So," Scarlet began slowly, "now it seems Blaze has won the SandWing thrown by default. Both of her sisters are dead. I'll have to take care of that loose end. But that will be easy enough. I could send an assassin, _or_ just enchant something to kill her."

* * *

Queen Glory set down her glass of wine, only the second one she'd had in the past half hour, stood up at her table, and everyone went silent in the midst of the celebration of their victory.

"Thank you," she said. "Some of you are probably going to believe I should have said this sooner, but I wanted all of you to have a chance to celebrate our victory first." She paused. "I want to thank all of you for your support over the past month in these conflicts with Scarlet." Glory looked from Queen Glacier and Blaze to Cobra and her remaining children, then to every other SandWing and IceWing who had taken part in supporting Glory, before her eyes finally landed on her friends, before her glance settled on Cobra, Qibli, and Rattlesnake again. "I could not have defeated Scarlet without all of you," she continued. "All of you played a part in Scarlet's defeat and, hopefully, her death. However, three dragons here deserve special praise on this night." She motioned at Cobra and her children. "Cobra. Qibli. Rattlesnake. Could you all stand up, please?"

"Us?" Cobra gasped. "But why? What did we do to defeat Scarlet?"

"It is more than just that," said Glory. "You lost a lot to help us all. You have earned my respect, and the respect of everyone else here. I will make sure your names, and the names of Vulture and Sirocco, are not forgotten when the history books are re-written after we have won this war. That is my promise to you."

"Th-thank you…Queen Glory," Rattlesnake whispered.

"I'll always miss grandfather and Sirocco," Qibli said weakly. He felt like he was going to pass out. "W-what are we going to do without them?"

Glory approached them suddenly. She rested her right talon on Qibli's shoulder, but looked at Cobra and Rattlesnake. "I cannot speak from experience, for I know barely any of my family and there has been no war in the rainforest, but one of our guardians told us, when we had to live under the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, that time can heal all wounds."

"That sounds like something grandfather would have said," whispered Qibli. "I wonder if he knew the guardian in question. He sounds like a smart dragon."

"Did he know a SandWing called Dune?" Glory asked softly.

"Yes," said Cobra. "Yes, I believe he did. I faintly remember a dragon called Dune who used to fight for Blaze, but he had to leave when he was crippled. He lost a foreleg and had his wing shredded to the point he could never fly again, if I recall correctly."

"That sounds like the injuries Dune had," Glory whispered.

"What happened to him?" Cobra asked.

 _Oh three moons, why did she have to ask_ that _? I don't want to upset her further._

"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" asked Prince Hailstorm.

Glory shook her head slowly. "Yes, yes," she whispered. "It's just, I can never forget what happened to Dune." She hesitated. "Scarlet…she snapped his neck right in front of my friends and I when we were much younger. It was the day she captured us four years ago and took us to her arena."

"Thank the moons she will never kill another dragon again," said Queen Glacier. "However, we will have to send spies to watch over the Sky Kingdom for the next few days to determine if she is dead or not. She has survived Queen Glory's venom before."

"But I did not spit my venom into her eyes the first time," said Glory. "This time, I made sure I scored a fatal hit. There is zero chance that she survived this time." She looked to Tsunami suddenly. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked the SeaWing princess. "You took quite a beating from Orca's statute, and returned to the front lines rather quickly. Have your broken bones even begun to heal?"

"Not entirely," Tsunami admitted sheepishly. "But I'm not in pain anymore."

"That does not matter. If your bones have not healed entirely, you risked a lot out there during our last battle. Why didn't you tell me you haven't healed all the way?"

"You made me your General after you became the Queen of the RainWings," said Tsunami. "I didn't want to let you down."

"Thank you, but I would have never forgiven myself if you were crippled, or worse, in that last battle. I really hate to do this, but I must relieve you of duty and take away your title of General until your injuries have healed completely."

Tsunami blinked and glanced at Riptide, then back to Glory. A part of her hadn't seen this coming, but she wasn't upset. However, she now realized that Glory was right. She couldn't risk fighting again while she still had broken ribs and the bones in her wing were still healing.

"You are right," said the SeaWing Princess. "I was such a fool for going into that battle knowing my wing's bones could have cracked again at any moment." She looked down at her talons, sporting an expression that was a mixture of guilt and sadness. She sighed a moment later. "I don't think I'll take part in anymore battles for a while, even if my bones heal fast."

"What?" Clay and Sunny gasped together. "Why?"

Tsunami glanced over at Riptide again. "Riptide and I…are thinking about starting a family. Or at least we were until Glory's ruse. We aren't sure if we should try now or wait until the war has ended, when it will be safer to raise eggs."

As they went about discussing this, Peril lingered away from everyone else.

 _They aren't even noticing me,_ she thought with a hint of bitterness. _I can't order drinks because the glass would melt in my grasp. And now they're talking about starting families. I never can. Clay is fireproof, but he isn't immune to pain. How can they all be so happy about being able to drink and talk about starting families when I'm going to be left out of both forever?_ She sat down and the grass turned to ash soon as it made contact with her belly, and sighed heavily. _They don't want me here and I risked my life to attack Scarlet. I can tell. Nobody's talked to me the whole time. Not even Clay and his friends. I know what I am going to do. I'll just fly away without saying anything, and then they'll pay attention to me._

Peril sighed again and then lifted off from her resting spot without thinking about saying goodbye, and nobody noticed as the fiery SkyWing left in tears.


	39. Chapter 38: Going it Alone

**Chapter 38:  
Going it Alone**

 _Nobody's ever wanted me,_ Peril miserably thought as she soared away from the Mud Kingdom and the Rainforest Kingdom. _All except for Scarlet and my mother, but they're both dead, so I have NOBODY. Clay and his friends don't even care about me. They all acted as if I weren't even there. What did I do to deserve being ignored? I've stuck with them all this time and that's how they repay me at our victory celebration? Well, to hell with them all. They can all die as far as I care. That goes for CLAY TOO! I can't believe I ever loved him! It's like he never even cared about me. He ignored me like the rest of them! Damn you Clay! I hope I never see you or your friends again!_

 _I don't need anybody. I'll live out the rest of my life alone and I'll die alone. That is damn fine with me. I don't care anymore. I could die right now, and I'd be perfectly happy with that. At least I'd be able to see my parents again! I'm too good for any of them. Clay was my one hope for true love and he ignored me like everyone else_ _ha_ _s. I hope you die, Clay. Good riddance to you and your friends. You'll never see me again unless it's to scorch all of you. I'm not on your side anymore. I'll fight in this war for myself. A one-dragon army. That's all I need to be. I don't need ANYBODY ever again. I could be the last dragon on the planet and I'd be fine with that. I wouldn't be any less lonely._

Peril could see the Sky Kingdom on the horizon; she didn't look back to the Mud Kingdom or the Rainforest Kingdom. Her heart was broken enough; she didn't need to remind herself again of all the selfish dragons she was leaving behind.

 _Why did Glory have to kill Scarlet?_ she thought. _I COULD have killed Scarlet, and THEN everyone back there would pay attention to me for the rest of my life. Especially Clay! But my whole life has always been ruined, so why should I care what any of them, even Clay, thinks about me ever again? I should just return to the Sky Kingdom to see what has become of it after Scarlet's death._

She laughed lightly. _Maybe they'd make me their Queen! HAH! Yeah right. I'm the last dragon anybody would want as Queen. I can't even sign peace treaties or write letters to the other Queens or anything like that due to my accursed firescales. Oh, how I wish I could just give my firescales up to live my life as a normal dragon. Nobody other than Scarlet h_ _a_ _s ever wanted anything to do with me because of my firescales before I met Clay and his friends, Scarlet was never a good thing for me, and now Clay and his friends don't seem to want ANYTHING to do with ME all of a sudden. WHAT did I EVEN do to deserve THIS? I've been good EVER since I left Scarlet's palace! I don't understand! I even did as much as ANYONE else in the last conflict with Scarlet! I didn't see anyone else going up against her FACE-TO-FACE! ARRRGGGHHH!_

The Royal SkyWing palace was coming into view now, Peril realized after her screaming and ranting. It looked like it always did, ominous and unwelcoming, but Peril wondered if it was on its way to being different ever since Scarlet's death. Maybe she'd be welcomed back now that Scarlet was gone. She hoped anyway. Where else would she go, since she had no intention of going back to Clay and his friends ever again?

"I'm home," Peril whispered to herself. "Maybe I never should have left here. At least I wasn't ignored by everyone here. Scarlet paid attention to me at least."

She swooped down to the palace and landed on the ledge, but froze when she heard dragons talking. Peril didn't want to barge in on them in case they wouldn't be happy to see her; maybe when the talking stopped, she would reveal her presence to the SkyWings.

"Her Majesty is furious!" a male voice said. "Queen Glory of the RainWings has nearly killed her with her venom twice."

"I know! I know!" said another. "I was there at the meeting! You don't need to remind me!"

 _Her Majesty?!_ Peril thought, alarmed. _Scarlet is still alive? How?!_

Peril nearly fell off the ledge, and the resulting sound caught the attention of the talking dragons.

"What was that?" Peril heard a third voice bark.

"A spy!" the first dragon roared. "Her Majesty will love to rip a spy apart."

 _I'd love to see Scarlet try it,_ thought Peril. _She can't kill me without her magic. She'd burn alive._ Then she thought, _That would be a great way to have Clay and his friends notice me, actually kill Scarlet and confirm she's dead._ She slapped herself. _NO! STOP thinking about THEM! You are not going back to them EVER._ She regretted that immediately. _But I need to warn them Scarlet is alive, or kill her now and go back to them to tell them Scarlet is finally dead. UGH! I am so conflicted!_

"IT'S HER MAJESTY'S EX-CHAMPION!" the second dragon screamed with terror, and then Peril quickly dispatched him. He screamed and then was dead, half his body reduced to a smoldering pile of ash in seconds.

But it was too late. Too late to have stopped the dragon from sounding the alarm, and also too late to flee. Peril found herself staring at not the other two dragons she'd been eavesdropping on, who fearfully kept their distance and rightfully so, but also Queen Scarlet.

 _So she did survive. But how? They all said that RainWing venom in the eyes is fatal. No dragon should have survived that._

"Have you finally realized you were wrong to leave me all those months ago to become friends of the Dragonets of Destiny?" Scarlet asked. "Have you come to your senses and realized that I am the best thing for you?"

 _Have I?_ Peril wondered. _Scarlet never ignored me once. She was cruel to me, but it was to have me learn the ways of the SkyWings. I didn't exactly listen very well when I was a dragonet. She had every right to get harsh with me. Of course she was never able to physically harm me due to my firescales, but her words had sometimes hurt just as much._

"Yes. Yes, I have," Peril finally said. "Clay and his friends…they were celebrating their victory over you, after honoring Vulture and Sirocco…they acted as though I wasn't even there, so I left them. I do not intend to return, so I came back here because where else would I have to go?"

"Smart decision." Scarlet grinned, but she looked more like a monster in Peril's mind, due to the even more severe burns she now sported. "I always told everyone you were a smart dragon, and that your loyalty would fall back to me one day. They didn't believe me, but it seems I was right in the end. Welcome back, my champion."

Peril bowed down before Scarlet. "It is good to be back, my Queen." For a moment, Peril wondered if this was a good idea, but then she forced any doubt out of her mind entirely. She had nowhere else to go, so she'd might as well spend the rest of her life serving the only dragon that has always cared about her and never ignored her existence. "How may I serve you first?"

"By making up for lost time," answered Scarlet. "The arena has been very VERY boring with you gone. Attendance has been down, but if I can spread word around my kingdom that you have returned, and you are loyal to me once more, I am sure everyone will come flocking to see you in action again."

"I am sure they will," Peril said with a wicked smile. "The truth is, I have missed fighting in your arena and watching dragons burn from my touch. I want to fight somebody immediately."

* * *

The arena looked exactly the same as the last time Peril had been here, except there was now a new announcer, another of Scarlet's sons. She remembered that Vermilion, the previous announcer for events in the arena, had been killed by Thorn during the first attack on her, in which Scarlet had killed Secretkeeper and the remainder of her RainWing prisoners, and revealed to everyone on Glory's side that she had always been an animus.

When she noticed that the arena was already flooded with at least fifty SkyWings and many more were just arriving, she knew word of her return and renewed loyalty to Queen Scarlet must have spread very quickly across the kingdom. Peril knew she couldn't disappoint any of them, or _especially_ Scarlet.

"Her Majesty's champion has returned!" the announcer shouted. Peril didn't know which of Scarlet's sons he was, for she'd never seen him before, but he definitely didn't sound as confident as Vermilion had. "And she has realized where her loyalty belongs!"

"Get on with it!" shouted a female SkyWing. "We came to see dragons burn alive, not listen to your boring speeches! You will never be as good as Vermilion was!"

"Emm. Right. Today, Peril will be fighting against an IceWing prince who was recently captured spying on the now late Princess Burn!"

 _Burn is dead? How?_ She looked at Scarlet questioningly, but the Queen only grinned at her. _Did she and Burn have a disagreement over something? And does this mean Blaze will be the next Queen of the SandWings, since Burn and Blister are both dead? Or does Scarlet have plans in mind to make sure that doesn't happen. I know she'd love for the war to continue. It means more dragons will end up in her arena to fight me. She hates the idea of Blaze ruling over the SandWings anyway._

"Bring out the next competitor!"

Three guards appeared from the corridor that led to the dungeon, where only the worst prisoners were kept. They were leading an IceWing whose snout had been muzzled so he couldn't use his frost breath against them.

"I give you Prince Bering of the IceWings! One of Queen Glacier's many sons!"

 _Queen Glacier's SON?_ Peril's mind screamed. _I can't kill him. Queen Glacier would never forgive me if I retu…no! You will never go back. Kill this IceWing and make it thrilling_ —She couldn't help using Scarlet's favorite word— _not for these nobody SkyWings, but for my Queen. Do it for her._

"Claws up!" Scarlet declared, rather than her son when she noticed how much the audience was booing him. "Fire ready!" then she muttered. "Well, only one of you can ready your fire. The useless IceWing has no fire. _FIGHT_!"

The IceWing Prince ran off immediately the instant Peril stepped toward him, but she didn't hesitate to charge after him and claw him on his right hind leg. Any other dragon would have simply screamed and kept trying to run as their scales burned, but since this dragon was an IceWing, he was especially vulnerable to the attacks of a firescales-afflicted SkyWing. He screamed as if he'd just had his wings ripped to shreds, and crumbled up in a ball as his hind leg became ash.

"STAND UP!" a male SkyWing roared. "We want a long fight!"

"A long and gory fight!" agreed another.

"Make it thrilling!" added Scarlet.

"A long fight from an IceWing against me? That's never going to happen," Peril muttered, then darted across the area, leaving a smoking trail in her wake, and towered over the IceWing, pinning him down with one talon pressed against his left shoulder. He screamed in agony as her talons quickly burned through his white scales.

He cast up a look of pure terror as Peril grinned wickedly down at him, and slowly raised up her other talon. "They asked for a gory fight," she whispered down at him. "I will grant their wish."

"NO!" the IceWing screamed. "Have mercy! I'm begging you!"

"Mercy is for the weak!" Peril snapped and then slammed her talon down powerfully enough to crack his head like an egg; he screamed one last time and blue blood splattered the sandy arena floor as his body went limp. The smell of burning IceWing flesh lofted in the area, much to the enjoyment of the watching SkyWings. Most of them seemed to forget they'd just asked for a long fight, in addition to a gory one, whereas Queen Scarlet had not.

Peril spun around with a furious look on her face. Oh, how she had missed ripping dragons open and crushing their heads like this! However, when she saw the way Scarlet was glaring past everyone, she quickly became nervous, and knew the Queen was disappointed.

"Disappointing," said Scarlet. "Have you forgotten how to make a fight thrilling in the few months you were away, not killing anyone other than Morrowseer?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," said Peril. "Send in another dragon. Not an IceWing. They never last long against me."

"Hmm." Scarlet pressed a talon against her melted face in thought. "That is true. A dragon that doesn't succumb to the touch of a firescaled dragon would make a fight more thrilling. And I think I know the perfect dragon." She looked to her guards, one male and one female. "You two. Go fetch the traitor. I've just decided his punishment."

"Anyone! I'll make them fight me like all the other dragons I've killed over the years! BRING ON THE NEXT VICTIM!" Peril roared. "Oh, I've missed being the killer I was born to be!"

"Now _that's_ the Peril I know and love!" Scarlet cheered darkly. "It's good to have that Peril back. I've missed her."

Peril glared excitedly at the pathway that led to Scarlet's dungeon until she saw who the dragon was, and she felt her heart sank. It was a wingless, pale red SkyWing called Osprey; her mentor and only friend other than Scarlet growing up. He'd taught her everything she knew, except for how to kill; Scarlet had handled teaching her that.

"Osprey?!" Peril nearly screamed. "Why him? He did nothing wrong!"

"He corrupted you!" Scarlet barked. "Taught you about freedom and RainWings and all sorts of other nonsense my arena champion for life doesn't need to concern herself with."

"No! He loved me! He was my mentor!"

"So now you will kill him. He's useless anyway. What good is a dragon that cannot fly?"

Peril felt torn. She wanted to please her Queen and all these spectators, but not at the cost of her mentor and the only other friend she'd ever had here. Osprey had kept her from going insane from loneliness on most days.

"I'll tell you what," said Scarlet. "Since this will obviously be hard for you, you can kill him quickly and be done with it. That will be thrilling enough for me."

The guards flew off as they unchained Osprey. The old SkyWing cowered before Peril as she approached him, sporting a mixed look of uncertainty and one that said she was ready to kill him.

"N-no! Peril!" cried Osprey. "You don't want to do this. You said it yourself: I'm the last dragon you would ever hurt!"

"BORING!" roared a female SkyWing. "Cremate the cripple alive already and prove your worthy of remaining Her Majesty's arena champion!"

"Get on with it!" demanded her sister. "We all want to see you make the cripple suffer!"

The SkyWings began chanting: "Kill the cripple! Make him burn! Scorch the cripple! Make him scream for death to take him! Cremate the cripple!"

"ENOUGH!" Peril roared. "You'll all be the first dragons I cremate if you do not SHUT UP! I can't THINK with all you IDIOTS chanting! AHH!" Their incessantant chanting made her want to tear the whole world down. "I'll DO it if you all SHUT up!"

"Yes! Kill him! Burn him! Cremate him! Death to the cripple! He is useless!" they all chanted anyway.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Peril screamed, and tackled Osprey. She shed tears that nobody in the audience, not even Scarlet, seemed to notice. "I'm s-sorry Osprey. I don't want to do this but they a-are giving me n-no choice!"

The look of terror on Osprey's face became one of understanding. "Do it," he whispered. "They've only given me two days to live anyway. You can guess why."

Peril nodded. She knew what Osprey meant. It was the disease he'd had as long as she'd known him, and it was finally killing him. There was no cure to it that the SkyWings or any other tribe could find. She should have known he was at the end of his life; why else would his wings have fallen off and shown no signs of being ripped or cut off?

"Goodbye, Osprey…" she whispered weakly. "I'll never forget you. I love you."

"I love you too, Peril," he answered.

And then she swiped through Osprey's throat, only once, with her talons. He screamed briefly and then was gone before he could even feel his own scales burning due to his student's touch.

"I'm amazed she did it!" someone in the audience said.

"I'm not," said Scarlet. "I knew my champion had it in her. That is why I am promoting her to become my royal bodyguard. She has proven just now that she will not disobey any of my commands, no matter how hard the decision is. I wouldn't trust anyone else to be my royal bodyguard anyway. It's not like anyone can get past her alive to assassinate me. Not that their attempts would matter. I can simply enchant myself to heal before any injury becomes fatal." She paused. "Which reminds me. I should get to enchanting my face to heal and become perfect again." She stood up. "I enchant myself to heal and revert to how it once looked before Glory the RainWing attacked me the first time."

The entire audience and Peril all gasped in unison as Scarlet's hideously melted face began mending before their eyes; in less than a minute, it was flawless again, and she now was no doubt the most beautiful female SkyWing in all of Pyrrhia once more.

"Much better!" said Scarlet. "I wish I had thought of doing this sooner. Furthermore, I enchant my scales to become immune to even the most potent of RainWing venom. I'm taking no more chances with Glory in our future battles. She will have to find another way to kill me."

Peril made her broken expression disappear when Scarlet looked down at her.

"Come, my champion and bodyguard," the Queen beckoned. "There are things we have to discuss in private about the future of the war. I have a special task in mind for you. Meet me in my royal chamber in five minutes. Don't be late."


	40. Chapter 39: The Wings of Fire

**Chapter 39:  
The Wings of Fire**

Queen Scarlet's throne room also looked exactly how Peril remembered it looking the last time she'd been here months ago; the same golden veins running through every crevice in the walls; the same statues carved in Scarlet's likeness; the same, albeit now empty, cage where she kept her most prized prisoners (or slaves, depending on how one looked at it). It did not surprise Peril that nothing had changed about the throne room.

"Your Majesty?" Peril asked once Scarlet had made herself comfortable in her throne. "What…is it you wanted me to do? The special task you mentioned?"

"It will be a very simple task for someone like you," Scarlet answered. "As you know, Princess Blister is dead. Queen Glacier of the IceWings killed her. And so is Princess Burn. She gave me no choice but to have her executed. I will not go into the reasons right now, but I couldn't afford to keep Burn around anymore."

"I think I know what you want me to do," Peril said softly

"Yes. Kill Princess Blaze. Once she learns that Burn is also dead, she will know that she is the last heir to Queen Oasis, their mother, and will be able to claim the SandWing throne by default. However, you and I both know that would the worst thing that could happen to the SandWing Tribe. Blaze would make a horrible Queen. She never even lead her own troops into battles against either of her sisters' forces. If she can't be a commander of an army, how could she ever command her entire tribe? She'd be better off dead with her sisters."

"But the prophecy says, 'Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn, two shall die and one shall learn if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher, she'll have the power of wings of fire.' Who are we to change what is destined to be? Burn and Blister are dead, so that leaves Blaze as the queen who 'bows to a fate that is stronger and higher'."

"Nonsense," Scarlet scoffed. "You should know better than to believe anything _NightWings_ say, let alone a prophecy that Morrowseer made up. They might believe it, and all of Pyrrhia might as well, but not us SkyWings. We are smarter and better than the other dragons on Pyrrhia. I did not want it to come to this, the war ending with there being no heir to Queen Oasis' throne, since I had thought Burn would be perfect for the task, but that is better than having a dizzy-headed dragon like Blaze ruling an entire kingdom and driving it straight into the ground. We'll be doing her a favor anyway. If we don't kill her now and allow her to take the throne once news of Burn's death reaches the Ice Kingdom, somebody will assassinate her anyway. She's doomed to die no matter what. We might as well make it happen sooner rather than later."

"I agree," sighed Peril. "It really is a shame that this war has been for nothing. Burn and Blister died, and now we must kill Blaze for the Kingdom of Sand's own good. Once that is done, who will there be left that can take the throne? Onyx has been assassinated, as have all of Queen Oasis' sisters, and Oasis only had three daughters before those scavengers slayed her."

"I will think of something. But in the meantime, we can keep the war going. Isn't that thrilling?"

"Yes, it is, but wouldn't the fighting just stop once everyone realizes the heirs to Queen Oasis are all dead, and nobody can claim the throne?"

"That would be the case, yes, but I've planned for that as well. All it will take to keep the war going is the death of another Queen. I am thinking one with a lot of sisters."

"Queen Moorhen of the MudWings," Peril whispered.

"Nobody would care if she died," Scarlet hissed. "Besides, all her sisters and daughters have already agreed on who her heir would be. I am referring to Queen Glacier of the IceWings; between her, Coral, and Moorhen, her death would be the quickest to start another war, _especially_ if we can make it seem like the NightWings are responsible. It is common knowledge that the IceWings' hatred for each other goes back to the time of Darkstalker, two thousand years ago. If a NightWing ever killed the Queen of the IceWings, another war would erupt immediately. Of course I would be on the winning side: the IceWings. The NightWings would stand no chance against the united forces of the IceWing army and the part of the SandWing army that had served with Blaze under the rule of Queen Glacier. There are too many dragons who love Queen Glacier to let her death at the claws of a NightWing slide."

"Can I make a suggestion, Your Majesty?" Peril asked quietly.

"Yes, of course."

"What if it's not Queen Glacier being killed and framing the NightWings that would make things go your way?"

"I don't understand."

"I'm just saying, I have a better idea in mind of which Queen deserves to die…and how to make sure another unnecessary war isn't fought."

"War is necessary! We're dragons! How else besides war are we going to solve our conflicts?"

"Peace treaties, for starters!" Peril said.

"Enough!" Scarlet barked. "I will hear no more of that part of your idea. The war will continue because I said it will. I am your Queen and you _will_ obey my every command." She paused. "I am, however, interested in your talk about killing a Queen that is not Queen Glacier to have things go my way. Which Queen did you have in mind?"

Peril hesitated. She knew this wasn't going to go well. "You," she finally said.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Scarlet roared and jumped up from her throne so quickly that it fell backwards. "I should enchant you to die exactly how Vulture did! How does the idea of enchanting your blood to become poison sound? I think it would be very, very _thrilling_ to watch a traitor like you suffer the worst death imaginable!"

"Here's my idea: You and me, we fight in your arena like real dragons. No magic, no tricks, nothing. The first dragon to be knocked down and not get back up is the loser, and the other will finish her off. You can use your magic to kill me however you wish then, if you can beat me fairly that is, but not until then."

"Very well," said Scarlet. "I will thoroughly enjoy killing you, Peril. You have changed too much. All that time with Clay and his friends has warped your brain. You'll deserve what happens to you."

"I'll be saying that about you very soon," Peril countered.

* * *

"There has been a change of plans!" Scarlet's son announced. "There will be one more death battle today, it seems! Her Majesty has just informed me that she will be fighting…her champion?!"

The entire audience gasped when he said this, and again when Scarlet and Peril appeared in the arena from opposite ends.

"May the best dragon live," Scarlet said. "Good luck, because you will need it. I do not need my magic to defeat you or to survive your deadly touch. You will never lay a talon on me. I am too fast for you, Peril. You should know that by now."

"Are we going to talk or rip each other's faces off?" Peril asked, trying her best to sound calm and bored. The truth was, however, that she was more nervous than she ever had been. How would it even be a fair fight for her when she had learned all her fighting techniques from Scarlet?

 _Wait,_ she thought. _That is not true. Tsunami_ _taught_ _me how to fight like the SeaWings fight, according to all the scrolls all her friends read under the Claws of the Cloud Mountains. Maybe I shouldn't have left them after all. I wonder if they will accept me back if I return to them with news that I killed Scarlet, and she is really dead now, and will not be coming back this time. Of course, I still have to kill Scarlet first._

"Claws up, fire ready, FIGHT!" Scarlet barked and then charged at Peril.

 _What is she doing?!_

Scarlet body slammed Peril to the ground and dug her claws into her champion's chest.

"How are you not burning?!" Peril screamed.

"The powers of an animus are limitless! I enchanted myself to be fireproof as well as venom proof. A powerful animus doesn't need to speak to enchant objects!"

 _This changes things,_ thought Peril. _She may be fighting fairly, but she ensured I have no advantage over her. My firescales will do nothing to her. I may as well not have them._

Peril kicked Scarlet off her and immediately tackled her. She tried ripping Scarlet's throat open with her own claws, but she blocked the attack and quickly kicked Peril off her.

"I know how you fight!" Scarlet laughed. "I taught you everything you know!"

 _Come on. Fight like_ _a_ _SeaWing,_ she thought. _Remember what Tsunami taught you. That is your only chance, crazy scales. Scarlet doesn't know anything about the fighting style of SeaWings. I CAN defeat her! I just need to fight like a SEAWING! Stop thinking like a SkyWing you fool!_

Peril's eyes blinked open when Scarlet lunged at her again. She sprang out of the way and Scarlet ate dirt; the SkyWing Queen picked herself right back up, and tried to catch Peril again, but she flew up and over Scarlet before she could be hurt.

"Where did you learn to fight this way?" Scarlet demanded. "Those are not the techniques I taught you! SkyWings do not dodge their attackers! They go at them head on!"

"This is the advantage of knowing dragons from all the tribes!"

Peril unpredictably sprang through the air and coiled around Scarlet, and buried her fangs in her neck. Blood spurted from the wound and stained Peril's rusty orange scales red before it evaporated. Peril ripped her head back and spat out the piece of flesh that came with her head as a result.

Scarlet roared in agony and dug her right hand into Peril's shoulder. "You will pay for that! I don't know where you learned to fight so unpredictably, but it will not save you from death!"

She responded by whacking Scarlet across the face with her tail, much to the Queen's shock; she then coiled her body around Scarlet's again, and once again buried her fangs into Scarlet's neck on the other side. The result was the same; tearing out a piece of flesh and spitting it away. Scarlet was too furious to even think about enchanting her scales to heal; she barely thought about the chance of either of these wounds being fatal. Scarlet only had one thought buzzing around in her brain: killing Peril.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Scarlet screeched. "I'll kill you! Why can't you just DIE?! You are really pushing my last nerve!"

Again, Peril struck Scarlet in the face with her tail, this time chipping one of her teeth.

"Why can't you fight like a SkyWing?!"

"Because I am open to learning the ways of the other tribes. That is why I will kill you today."

Scarlet seemed to ignore what she said. She tried again to tackle Peril to the ground so she could rip out the annoying SkyWing's throat and be done with this, but she failed and tasted sand once more.

Peril took advantage of Scarlet being down and cursing the sand. She pinned her down in a manner that prevented her from escaping, no matter how much she squirmed. Peril didn't hesitate to break Scarlet's left arm with a horrific _crack_. Scarlet's resulting scream reached the ears of every dragon in the audience.

Some of them began chanting, "Peril! Peril!"

"Traitors!" Scarlet screamed. "I'll enchant you all to explode from the inside out after this battle when she's dead!"

"Peril! Peril! Death to Scarlet!"

"Silence you idiots!" some other dragons shouted. A fight erupted among the dragons, the minority of them supporting Peril, and the majority supporting Scarlet.

"Scarlet is the Queen! You _will_ respect her!" a female shouted, and then died when talons ripped through her face.

"That is how we feel about Scarlet!" another female said. "Everyone support Peril!"

"I enchant her to fall apart!" Scarlet roared as she threw Peril off her with unnatural strength for a dragon with one useless arm. "Show those fools all her gory parts!" Before anyone else could move, the dragon that had said everyone should support Peril literally fell apart into a gory mess before everyone's eyes. The crowd of Peril-supporting dragons screamed and split apart. "That will happen to any other dragons that voice their support of Peril! Now everyone sit down, shut your mouths, and watch the fight OR DIE!"

"You will be the last dragon to die," Peril said.

"No!" Scarlet screamed then whirled around only to immediately freeze when she heard an unmistakable thud. She looked down to see a sword pierced through her abdomen and out her back. Blood dripped from the blade as she fell to her knees, causing the sword to slice up through her belly into her chest.

There was a stunned silence on both sides in the audience as Scarlet fell over on her side, caught in death twitches. No enchantment would save her from this injury. The sword had sliced through the edge of her heart and collapsed one of her lungs, after it severely damaged her stomach and liver.

"I…" Scarlet coughed. "…enchant my…scales to return to normal, and no longer…be immune to damage…"

Knowing what this meant, Peril now towered over the dying Queen. "Have you ever wondered what it felt like?" Peril snarled. "What you made me do to all those dragons? Because it's over now. You are the last dragon I will ever kill."

"Killing me…will get…you nowhere," Queen Scarlet hissed. "You'll still have…no life to live…no mate to be with…no _family_. You'll die out of…history…until no dragon…remembers you existed."

The Sky Queen began laughing maniacally, in spite of how weakened she'd been rendered by her fatal injuries. She had no concern of what was about to come. She'd already accepted how her life would end, since not even her magic could save her from death this time, having planted so much fear in her ex-champion's mind about what her future will hold that Peril would doubt herself for the rest of her life.

"You'll never be resurrected from ash, you heartless hag!" Peril hissed. With a single swipe of her sharpened talons, Peril sliced and burned through Scarlet's throat as if it were nothing more than a curtain, causing sheer agony for a second before her head disintegrated in Peril's grasp. The sadistic queen's screaming had ceased for the last time.

Peril then breathed her fire over Scarlet's remains until nothing was left besides a smoldering pile of ash.

When it was all over, Peril whispered to herself, "Scarlet was right about one thing all along. I _am_ a monster. Only a monster would do what I just did to her, even if it was to rid the world of another, much worse monster."

The SkyWings in the audience muttered amongst each other at first, then some began to descend from the audience and, much to Peril's shock, bow down at her talons (obviously at a safe distance).

"All hail Peril!" these ten dragons cheered. "Long live the new Queen of the SkyWings!"

"Me! The new Queen of the SkyWings? But wh-how? This makes no sense!"

Another dragon descended from the audience and bowed down next to the others; many others began doing this, but it was the first that had descended who spoke next.

"Scarlet had no living heirs. No sisters, no daughters. She killed all her sisters and all her daughters with the exception of Tourmaline, who died in combat months ago, as you know. And, Your Majesty, since you are the first dragon to challenge Scarlet and defeat her while she had no living heirs, that makes you the next Queen of the SkyWings, per our ancient customs."

"Peril!" a familiar voice called from behind her.

Peril whirled around and a look of joy came over her face when she saw a flock of dragons coming her way. She immediately recognized Clay and all his friends; Deathbringer, Riptide, Cobra, Qibli, Rattlesnake, Blaze, Queen Glacier, and Prince Winter were the only others she recognized.

"Clay!" Peril cried happily. "You all came looking for m-me? I th-thought you were all ignoring me at the celebration? Nobody was talking with me, even after the honoring ceremony. I'd f-feared nobody cared about me after all."

"We never stopped caring about you," said Sunny. The others nodded.

"As soon as we'd realized you were missing, we'd all split up to look for you," said Riptide. "But it was Queen Glory who said you must have come back to see if Scarlet was really dead or not."

Queen Glory stepped forward, with Deathbringer staying close to her. "So, where is Scarlet?"

Peril motioned to the pile of ash that hadn't stopped smoldering. " _That_ is all that is left of Scarlet. She will never hurt anyone ever again."

"Y-you killed Scarlet?" Tsunami gasped.

"You must tell us how you did on the way back to the Rainforest Kingdom, Peril!" Clay said.

" _Queen_ Peril," she corrected happily.

"What?!" the entire crowd gasped.

"Queen?" said Starflight.

"Peril?" a female NightWing whom Peril hadn't seen before gasped. It definitely wasn't Moonwatcher; she appeared to be the same age as Starflight, maybe a few days younger.

"Yep. I am the new Queen of the SkyWings. They all witnessed how I defeated Scarlet just now, in the challenge I made to her, although I hadn't done it with becoming their new Queen in mind. This works too, though." Then her voice became less cheerful. "I just wish my mother could be here to see this. She'd be so happy." A mental picture of Kestrel smiling and wishing to embrace her flashed through her mind, and she smiled again.

Clay shook, still trying to grasp the concept of Peril being the new Queen of the SkyWings. "We have shocking news, too. It seems the war is over. Not how we intended or thought we would end it, if you consider the prophecy, but word from spies in Scarlet's palace has begun to spread around Pyrrhia that Burn is also dead. Since Blister died in the Ice Kingdom, that left Blaze as the last living heir to Queen Oasis, and she became the Queen of the SandWings by default. The Talons of Peace found us to say that the fighting is stopping all over Pyrrhia and peace treaties are being made among the former warring tribes."

Peril took note of the robe and crown Blaze now wore. "This is great!" she exclaimed.

"Does this mean our journey together is over, Your Majesty?" Sunny asked sadly. "I'm not ready to say goodbye to you, Peril. We've been through so much over the past few months."

Peril nodded slowly. She hated to think about it, but she couldn't leave with Clay or all his friends now. She had to learn how to rule a kingdom now. "I can always visit you guys, wherever it is you will go, when I am not busy ruling over my kingdom."

"Jade Mountain," said Queen Glory. "As you know, I was starting to plan out a school we could all run there together." She waved a wing past her friends.

Peril felt sad when Glory's wing stopped at Clay. "I…Clay. I was thinking, could you stay here with me, as my king?"

"W-what?" Clay stammered.

"I cannot rule this kingdom on my own, and I love you. I've always wanted to tell you I loved you, but I never had the courage to do it until now. I wouldn't want anyone else to be my King."

Clay blinked. "I'm sorry, Peril. I want to be with you as much as you want to be with me, but I need to help my friends with setting up Jade Mountain Academy. They cannot do it without me. I have so many ideas to help the school get off the ground."

Peril sighed. "I understand. Maybe you can still be my King, even if you are not ruling by my side?"

"Yes. I could, I suppose." He embraced Peril.

"Does this mean they are married without a wedding?" Tsunami whispered.

"It seems so," said Deathbringer.

"King Clay!" Sunny said as she sobbed against Starflight's shoulder. "I never would have seen the day Clay becomes the King of any tribe coming! You won't ever leave us once the school is up and running, will you? We'll miss you if you do."

"I…" Clay began.

"You can answer that when the time comes," Tsunami interrupted softly. "A big decision like that will take time. You'll be in my heart no matter what you decide, Clay. Whatever you decide, we'll be there for you no matter what." Then she bellowed, "Long live Queen Peril and King Clay of the SkyWings!"

All the SkyWings, who had descended from the audience in the time Peril had been talking to all her friends, shouted together: "LONG LIVE QUEEN PERIL AND KING CLAY!"

And so was the dawn of a new era on Pyrrhia.

It was the start of a new era of peace, something which Pyrrhia had not known for twenty years.


	41. Epilogue: The Future of Pyrrhia

**Epilogue:  
The Future of Pyrrhia**

 _One year later…_

THE ICE KINGDOM

Queen Glacier looked out from the balcony of her palace, and out at her kingdom. Everything felt so different now. Queen Blaze and her SandWing army had left the Ice Kingdom one year ago today, and Pyrrhia felt at peace for the first time in two decades. She had been born at the start of the war and became the Queen seven years into it after her mother passed away suddenly; all she had ever known was war, but now that was behind them, and Pyrrhia had moved on into the first peaceful era she'd ever known.

She looked behind her as two dragonets yelled for her to come play. It was her new son and daughter that had resulted from an unknown SandWing assaulting her; they were both IceWing-SandWing hybrids. The daughter looked more like an IceWing than a SandWing, but she beared the diamond pattern unique to some SandWings, as well as the deadly barbed tail of SandWings. The son, however, looked more like a SandWing, while sporting snow white scales like an IceWing and lacking a deadly barbed tail. Glacier thought they looked perfect; she wished they had been born under better circumstances, but if everyone honored her wishes, these two would never know who their father was or why they came to be. She had named them Margerie and Baltoro.

"Coming dears," Glacier said softly. She looked at the horizon one last time, thought about how it looked so odd not to see all her soldiers on watch for Blister's invading army anymore, and then left the balcony to catch up with her children.

* * *

THE KINGDOM OF SAND

Queen Blaze of the SandWings sat on her throne with King Quicksand happily by her side; not a day had passed since Queen Glacier had pardoned him for the tragedy involving Princess Onyx and compensated him with gold for what happened to Six-Claws that he didn't miss his son.

He'd learned, however, that his late son had a daughter called Ostrich and named her after his late mother — and Quicksand's first wife — with a female SandWing called Kindle. It was this news six months ago that had convinced him and Blaze to start a family of their own; in another six months or so, Blaze would be sitting on a nest of eggs. She and Quicksand had never been so happy; the only thing that could make their lives better was if Onyx and Six-Claws had lived to the end of the war. Blaze had forgiven the late Six-Claws, and her then fiancé Quicksand, for what happened to Onyx.

However, today was a solemn day in the throne room of the SandWing palace, however, that took Queen Blaze and King Quicksand back to his own trial in the Ice Kingdom. Before them stood a convicted murderer, the only SkyWing who had refused to accept Queen Peril and King Clay as the new rulers of the Sky Kingdom, and had fled to the Kingdom of Sand, where he murdered a SandWing mother in front of her children when he broke into their house. The SkyWing's sentencing trial had ended earlier in the week, and this second jury was now about to give their verdict to the question of the SkyWing being sent to the executioner or simply prisoner for life. She had spoken with Queen Peril about what to do with him, and she'd said it was up to them what they had to do. Blaze had dreaded this, for one obvious reason. She and Quicksand had been trying their hardest not to think about what happened in the Ice Kingdom.

Queen Blaze stood up. "What have you decided?" she asked the lead juror, a SandWing not much older than Onyx had been.

"We have decided that the convicted shall be sentenced to death immediately, for his crime of murder."

"You are all excused. King Quicksand and I thank you all for your service through this difficult time. You all had to make the most difficult decision most dragons will ever have to make in their lives."

"It breaks my heart to take part in these kinds of trials," Blaze said to her husband once the chamber had cleared out. "They always just remind me of what happened to Onyx and Six-Claws in the Ice Kingdom."

"I have to agree with you," he sighed. "It is hard to take part in these trials, but we are their King and Queen now. It is ancient SandWing custom for the King and Queen to be the judges in any trial, _especially_ murder trials."

"I'd rather not talk about it anymore," she said softly. "It's over and he's been given what the jury believes he deserves. There is no reason to discuss this case any further." She immediately changed the subject. "Now come, dear, let's watch the sunset before it's too late. I heard some dragons earlier saying that it's going to be especially beautiful tonight."

First, however, they would make a stop to pick up Thorn and her recent husband, Blaze's last surviving brother Smolder, who had been staying in the wingery with their dragonets recently.

* * *

THE SKY KINGDOM

The Sky Kingdom was nothing like how it used to be. Queen Peril and the council she'd formed immediately had changed a lot in the past year. Most notably, the arena was not used for death battles anymore; it was used for various different things now, ranging from being a hospital for dragons injured during the war, or havens for those that lost their homes or families. That was the first thing Peril had outlawed in her kingdom. Secondly, she'd taken a vote to weed out the dragons who were still loyal to the previous Queen, and had all those dragons thrown in the dungeon, only to be released if they truly supported her. So far none of them had and so they remained in the dungeon, given proper meals and water twice a day, but never being allowed to leave.

Scarlet's arena was still that, an arena, but when that was its purpose, it was only for celebrations, not death battles, in addition to of course offering refuge to wounded soldiers and homeless dragons. The first such celebration had been Peril and Clay's wedding one month ago, cementing his place as the first non-SkyWing King of the SkyWings in the known history of the tribe. Although King Clay was still hard at work at Jade Mountain Academy as the teacher of several classes focused on health, healing, and self defense. He visited the Sky Kingdom once every one or two weeks, depending on how busy he was at Jade Mountain Academy, to check in on his wife and kingdom, just as he'd promised the same day Peril had become the Queen of the SkyWings.

Today was an especially happy day for Queen Peril. She'd suspected it every day since her and Clay's wedding, but hadn't had any proof until today's visit from the tribe's healers. Her and Clay had been very careful about it; yeah, he was fireproof due to being a MudWing that hatched from a blood red egg, but that didn't prevent him from feeling pain when he embraced Peril for too long. They'd eventually succeeded, albeit only with an enchantment from an animus IceWing that had taken away Peril's firescales for only one month, and now she had to tell him the urgent news she'd just learned.

She had immediately rushed back to her royal chamber to write Clay a letter with this news before the enchantment expired and her firescales returned when the hour was over.

 _Maybe I should ask the same animus to enchant my firescales to be gone permanently. They're nothing more than a reminder of all the horrible things I did for Scarlet over my entire life before I met Clay. I'll write a letter to her immediately after this asking if she can do that for me._

Peril dipped the feather into the ink well, then began to write.

 _Dear Clay,_

 _I have exciting news for you. I just got back from the healers, and their test confirmed that I am carrying eggs. So, congratulations, you're going to be a father!_

 _I hope you get this letter immediately._

 _P.S.: I am going to write another letter to the IceWing animus who enchanted my firescales away to see if she can make the enchantment permanent._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Queen Peril,_

 _of the SkyWings,_

 _and your loving wife_

* * *

JADE MOUNTAIN ACADEMY

Jade Mountain Academy had proven to be a total success. The seven tribes, now at peace ever since the end of the War of SandWing Succession one year ago, had sent so many potential students to the Academy that the previously small staff had to split them up not in six winglets, but ten instead, all named for minerals: Jade, Gold, Silver, Copper, Quartz, Diamond, Alexandrite, Amethyst, Emerald, and Opal. The various Queens across Pyrrhia, without the exception of Queen Glory since the Rainforest Kingdom unfortunately lacked such supplies, had also scrounged up all the supplies the school would ever need, as well as some additional teachers.

School had just let out a few moments ago and the thirteen staff members were awaiting Queen Glory and King Deathbringer's arrival in the cave that had been designated as an auditorium; all eighty students were already present as well. The Jade Mountain Academy Staff consisted of Princess Tsunami, Riptide, and Lagoon — not to be confused with Queen Lagoon of the SeaWings from ancient times — of the SeaWings; Starflight, Fatespeaker and Greatness of the NightWings; King Clay of the MudWings; Sunny and Thorn of the SandWings; Princess Snowfall of the IceWings; Ex-Queen Grandeur of the RainWings; and Harrier and Eagle — not to be confused with a SkyWing of the same name from ancient times — of the SkyWings.

Of course, it was Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, and Starflight who had founded Jade Mountain Academy, along with Queen Glory. These thirteen staff members were responsible for, currently, eighty students from the seven tribes, including a total of eight hybrids; among them were the three children of Queen Glory and King Deathbringer of the RainWings, who made frequent unannounced visits to check on their two-year old dragonets. They sat next to Solwhisper and Novawatcher, the offspring of Starflight and Fatespeaker.

Exactly on the half hour, Queen Glory arrived with her husband, and, as expected, more than anyone, their three children, the twin sisters Firefly and Anaconda, and their brother Shadowrain became excited the moment they came on stage.

"That's our mother and father!" the three dragonets cried out joyously, and all the other students' attention became focused on them rather than Queen Glory and King Deathbringer.

"Shush, dears," Sunny said softly from behind them. "Your mommy and daddy are about to speak. I'll take you to see them later."

"Sorry, Miss Sunny," they apologized in unison. They sat back down, but could still barely contain their excitement, especially when their mother began to speak.

"Friends, students," she began, then added, with a smiling glance at her over excited children, "family. Jade Mountain Academy has proven itself very popular among the Queens of all the tribes. One year ago, when I first started writing the brochure we handed out to all of you on opening day, I never would have imagined it being so popular immediately. As some of you already know, we even had to increase the number of winglets from six to ten to accompany all eighty of you. I believe that as Jade Mountain Academy's popularity increases and more families wish to enroll their children in the future, the number of winglets may have to be increased again."

Before she had begun her speech, Glory was pleased to see that Princess Depthreacher had taken up her aunt Tsunami's offer to leave her job in the Mud Kingdom so she could enroll at the academy this year.

"There is talk among the tribes that Jade Mountain Academy is already on its way to becoming the most popular school in recent times, based on opening day enrollment numbers," she continued. "Queen Glacier of the IceWings and Queen Blaze of the SandWings informed me that history books claim that never before has a school in the past fifty years had eighty students enrolled on its first day." She paused, then continued. "I want you all to know that I am planning something special for every one of you for your success in your classes over the past year. Yes, I have seen all your grades, for am I close friends with many of your teachers and came up with the idea for Jade Mountain Academy with my husband the previous year, and I am very impressed with all of you. So, because tomorrow is the weekend and all of you will have plenty of free time.

"I am proud of all eighty of you for your hard work over the past year, and I hope everyone keeps it up over the next next year that most of you will be attending Jade Mountain Academy. I think I can speak for every one of my friends sitting behind you all when I quote the school motto: We wish you all the power of wings of fire!"

 **The End**


End file.
